Lullaby

Above:  The Angel’s Whisper, Between 1890 and 1900

Image Creator = Great Western Supply House

Image Source = Library of Congress

(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/pga/item/95514352/)

Reproduction Number = LC-USZC4-3398

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EDITOR’S NOTE:

My great-grandmother wrote this text for Sarah Claiborne Barrett (1908-1954), her second child and first daughter.  The words fit the tune “Russian Vesper Hymn,” to which generations have sung “Now On Land and Sea Descending.”

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

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Bye O, bye ,O Baby, bye O,

Hush-a-bye, my precious one,

Close your eyes in peaceful slumber,

For the restless day is done.

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Softly fades the golden glory

From the setting sun’s last ray,

Softly now the deepening twilight

Steals upon the dying day.

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All the little birds are sleeping,

‘Neath their mother’s drowsy breast,

And the evening star grows brighter

As the light fades from the west.

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Softly now the vesper anthem

Floats upon the scented air;

Like a strain of heav’nly music

Earthward borne by angels fair.

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Bye O, bye O, Baby, bye, O,

Naught can harm thee, little one,

While our Heavenly Father guards thee,

Sweetly sleep,–the day is done.

NELLIE SEGUIN FOX BARRETT

DOUGLASVILLE, GEORGIA

1907