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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Little children, tiny children,
So tired and so sleepy.
Weary children, drowsy children,
To dream-land will go.
In their bed with downy pillows,
The children's heads rest on.
Sleepy children, weary children,
To dream-land have gone.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"Little Children" is a gentle lullaby that works through repetition of sleepy, weighted words — "tired", "sleepy", "weary", "drowsy" — to create the sensation of drowsiness it describes. The song is its own argument for sleep: by the time a child has heard the second verse, the rhythm and the vocabulary have done their work.
The song belongs to a tradition of lullabies that describe rather than command: instead of telling a child to sleep, they show what sleep looks like, painting a picture of comfortable beds and pillow-softened heads that makes the destination seem appealing. "Dream-land" is presented as a real destination, a place the children go rather than simply a state they enter.
The movement of the rhyme from "will go" to "have gone" is a small but effective device, describing the transition from wakefulness to sleep as already accomplished by the time the verse ends. The child who was going to dream-land has, by the final line, already arrived.
"Little Children" works best sung quietly and slowly, the words becoming softer with each verse, until the singing itself seems to drift off at the end.
