Ere the moon begins to rise
Or a star to shine,
All the bluebells close their eyes;
So close thine,
Thine, dear, thine!1

Birds are sleeping in the nest,
On the swaying bough;
Thus, against the [mother-breast]2,
So sleep thou,
Sleep, sleep, sleep!

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View original text (without footnotes)
¹ De Koven adds "Sleep, love, sleep, / Slumber deep; / Sleep, sleep, sleep, / So sleep."
² De Koven: "mother's breast"

Text Authorship:

• by Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836 - 1907), "Cradle song", appears in Unguarded Gates and Other Poems, first published 1895 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Percy Lee Atherton (1871 - 1944), "Cradle song", op. 20 (Four songs) no. 2, published 1903 [sung text not yet checked]
• by George F. Bauer , "Cradle song", published 1896 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ronald A. Beckett , "Lullaby - Ere the moon begins to rise", 2008 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by (Henry Louis) Reginald De Koven (1859 - 1920), "Cradle song" [sung text checked 1 time]
• by George Alfred Grant-Schaefer (1872 - 1939), "Ere the moon begins to rise", published 1912 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Charles Fonteyn Manney (1872 - 1951), "Ere the moon begins to rise", published 1906 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Liborius Semmann (1873 - ?), "Cradle song", published 1909 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frederick Newell Shackley (1868 - ?), "Ere the moon begins to rise", published 1898 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Adolf Weidig (1867 - 1931), "Cradle song", op. 80 (Three songs to poems by Thomas Bailey Aldrich) no. 1, published 1927 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 10
Word count: 43