Gabrielle added this lullaby to the project as it had always been very effective getting babies to sleep in her family. The tune is different from the one heard on many of the lullaby websites. Gabrielle learnt it from her mother who was from Cardiff and she learnt it from her father whose family was Irish, so this could be an Irish tune.

The words are traced back possibly to Elizabethan England as there are references in Shakespeare's 'King Lear' to the sheep being in the corn, and there was a possible link to Cardinal Wolesey and the Reformation.

Lyrics:
'Little boy blue, come blow on your horn, the sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn. But where's the little boy who looks after the sheep? He's under a haystack fast asleep. Will you awake him, no not I. For if I do he's sure to cry.'

Last modified

• 10/23/2024

Creator

• Awre, Gabrielle

Contributors

• Awre, Gabrielle

Subject

• Traditional lullabies
• Gabrielle
• Little boy blue
• Lullaby
• The Hidden Art of the Lullaby

Publisher

• The University of Hull

Language

• eng

Identifier

• hull:18358

Date created

• 2017