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Arrangement: Ian J. Watts / Mike Wilbury · Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks
Lyrics
Sleep, baby, sleep,
Our cottage vale is deep,
The little lamb is on the green,
With woolly fleece so soft and clean,
Sleep, baby, sleep.
Sleep, baby, sleep,
I would not, would not weep,
The little lamb he never cries,
For bright and happy are his eyes,
Sleep, baby, sleep.
Sleep, baby, sleep,
Down where the woodbine creeps,
Be always like the lamb, so mild,
A kind and sweet and gentle child,
Sleep, baby, sleep.
Sleep, baby, sleep,
Thy rest shall angels keep,
While on the grass the lamb shall feed,
And never suffer want or need,
Sleep, baby, sleep.
Traditional lyrics — public domain. Arrangement © Singalongasong Band / ClassicRocks.
History & Background
History & Origin
"Sleep, Baby, Sleep" is a traditional German lullaby, "Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf", translated into English in the nineteenth century and adopted into the English-speaking lullaby repertoire. The original German text dates from at least the seventeenth century.
The lullaby uses the image of a lamb on the green to soothe the baby to sleep: the lamb is gentle, contented, and warm, and the hope is that the child will share these qualities. The woodbine (honeysuckle) creeping down where the baby sleeps adds a pastoral fragrance to the scene. The final verse, in which angels keep the sleeping child's rest while the lamb grazes undisturbed, brings together the domestic and the sacred in the way that the best lullabies do.
The lamb appears throughout the lullaby tradition — in "Baa Baa Black Sheep", in "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and here — because lambs are genuinely associated with innocence, gentleness, and new life. For a child being sung to sleep, the image of a contented lamb in a green field is as good a picture of peace as the tradition has to offer.
Our arrangement gives the lullaby the warmth and quiet it deserves.
