[BNP/E3, 31A – 18]

25

Lullaby

 27

   My heart is full of lazy pain

1. And an old English lullaby

   Comes out of that mist of my brain.

   ........ 

   I would give all my singing trade

2. To be that distant English child

   For whom this happy song was made.

   .....(next verse)..... 

   There must have been true happiness

3  Near where this song was sung to small

   White hands clinging[1] a mother's dress.

   -----------

   Oh, what a sorrow comes to me

4  Knowing the bitterness I have

   While that child had this lullaby!

   -----------   

   Somehow, somewhere I heard this song,

10 I was part of the happiness

   That lived its idle lines along.

   ---------

[18v]

2

   My heart aches to be able to weep.

5  Oh to think of this song was[2] sung

   To a[3] child smiling in its sleep!

   ---------------

   I was a child too, but would now

6. Be the child, and no other hearing

   The song with blue eyes and fair brow.

   -----------

   Oh could I but return to that

7  Happy time that was never mine

   And which I live but to regret!

   ----------

   Ay sing on in my soul, old voice,

8  So motherfully laying to sleep

   The babe that quietly doth rejoice

   Sing on, and let my heart feel soft[4]

9  To know that sometime someone had

   This song to lull him into sleep

   Ay, somehow, somewhere I was that

11 Child, and my heart lay happy asleep.

   Now - oh my sad and unknown fate!

 
[1] clinging /clutching\/gripping\
[2] was /being\
[3] To a /And the\
[4] and let my heart feel soft /and let my heart calmness joy weep\