Last night my son requested me to sing this lullaby for him. And since he's the only darling who would ask me to sing, who actually looks forward to me singing, I obliged.
And at the end of it, tho' I've heard the lullaby a hundred times, I suddenly noticed that its such a not-suitable song to rock a baby to sleep. I mean the tune is perfect and lilting and it rhymes and all that is alright.
But it is pretty moronic I would say, to make up a lullaby for a baby in which, at the end of it all, the baby falls down, cradle and all! And you don't even know if he was alright after it!
By now Sonny boy has picked up enough of the Queen's English to understand what we say perfectly, especially after I have started reading out stories to him straight from books. So yesterday I could see that he was following the lines and was puzzled by the anticlimax at the end, in which the poor baby fell down... and worse, there was no Momma or God to pick it up and kiss away its hurts....
For the record, am putting down the little rhyme here
Rock a bye baby on the treetop
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all!
This is all I know of it. Is there somebody out there who knows if there's more to this rhyme than what I've put here?
2 months ago
