I usually sing while I rock Sailor to sleep and recently I've tired of singing the same songs over and over, so I started taking a songbook into the nursery with me. My dad had the foresight to collect Lynwood Smith's books over the years for us kids, so I have nearly a full set including one called
Lamplitin' Songs. Frank and I were talking just the other day about Lynwood's fondness for maudlin songs and, boy, does this book have some great ones! Songs about missing home, soldiers at war, unrequited love, at least three about coffins, twenty or more songs about the old homeplace/cabin/shack and lots and lots of songs about "Mother" - her love, her hands, her Bible, the fact that she's getting old. But I think I've found my favorite. How's this for a lullaby?
Babes in the Woods
My friends, have you heard how a long time ago
Two little children whose names I don't know
Were stolen away on a bright summer day
And left in the woods, I've heard people say
And when it was night, so sad was their plight
The sun went down and the moon gave no light
They sobbed and they sighed and bitterly cried
Then the poor little things, they laid down and died
And when they were dead the robins so red
Brought strawberry leaves and over them spread
And all the night long, the branches among
They mournfully whistled and this was their song:
Poor babes in the woods.
Comments (13)
well that's weird
Oh please no! Your child will be scared to play in the woods or go camping and stuff. What a crazy song LOL
Hm...I wonder who thought that up and why.
Did Lynwood write that or just collect it? That's a side of him that I never knew.
@GrandmaMeents - He didn't write it, although some of the songs are his. None quiet that grim though!
Looks like the story in this song dates back to the 1500s.
You know, infant mortality was off the charts before, what, 1900? Children were dying everywhere. So in some way is makes sense that this is what folk songs would talk about. It was a major part of the culture.
@macluhan_was_right - Huh, that's very interesting.
That's sad!
Sad to say, but my mom has sung that to us before, not as lullaby or even when we were little, but I guess people were full of morbid songs. My grandmother on my dad's side used to sing us a song about a poor grey kitty who died. It's horrible. We laugh at them now, but they were sad when we were kids! LOL
I'd like to quote Julia: "well that's weird"
HAHA!! We have that songbook, and Uncle Ivan and I always sing from it together...when i was littleish (12??) we cam across that song and sang it together and were like, WHAT IN THE WORLD!!?? HAHA but it has a good melody...:)
That song really brought back stories that my mom used to tell me. My mom and her big sister used to sing that song and it would make their little sister cry. My grandma would tell them to stop singing that song that was making her cry, so they would hum it instead, still making her cry. I had to forward this to my mom so that she would remember that song that she had talked about so much.
I like happier songs myself.