1. Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now reclining,
Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the Infant King.
Angels are watching, stars are shining
Over the place where he is lying.
Sing lullaby!
2. Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now a-sleeping,
Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the Infant King.
Soon will come sorrow with the morning,
Soon will come bitter grief and weeping:
Sing lullaby!
3. Sing lullaby!
Lullaby baby, now a-dozing,
Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not wake the Infant King.
Soon comes the cross, the nails, the piercing,
Then in the grave at last reposing:
Sing lullaby!
4. Sing lullaby!
Lullaby! is the babe a-waking?
Sing lullaby!
Hush, do not stir the Infant King.
Dreaming of Easter, gladsome morning,
Conquering Death, its bondage breaking:
Sing lullaby!
(Basque traditional, translated Source)
Performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxSMCmERA14
Like a number of carols, this is a lullaby. Also like a number of carols, it’s a reminder to us of what will happen to this baby when he grows up.
It was first published around the turn of the 19th to 20th century, although Carols for Choirs lists it as a Basque traditional carol so it’s likely that this was just the first time the tune and English words were published together and that its roots go much further back.
The structure is very repetitive, with the ‘lullaby’ taking up most of each verse. Verse 1 is what you would expect from a nativity carol, mentioning angels and stars watching over the baby. The second and third verses foreshadow the Easter story and the death Jesus would go through- betrayed, condemned, crucified and pierced with nails, dead and buried. Verse 2 sums it up.
‘Soon will come sorrow with the morning,
Soon will come bitter grief and weeping”
Mary shows more understanding of what is going on than anyone else who appears in the Christmas story. We are told that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2 v19). A few weeks after Jesus' birth, at his blessing in the temple, she is told that while Jesus would do great things, he would face opposition and that “a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2 v35). Did she remember that, when she stood at the foot of the cross all those years later? I think she did. I think she trusted God that even the pain of losing her child was not overlooked, not underestimated, but would be transformed into something meaningful.
“Dreaming of Easter, gladsome morning,
Conquering Death, its’ bondage breaking”
Verse four is a good reminder that we can be too keen to focus on Good Friday and not enough on Easter Sunday. Jesus’ death is often described as being like the Old Testament sacrifice of a lamb as a sin offering, the idea being that the animal would be killed in place of the sins committed by the one(s) who provided the lamb. The act was symbolic; killing a lamb couldn’t really make up for human failures and repair our relationship with God after we let him down. The breakdown of that relationship and separation from God- death- was the consequence of our failures, and Jesus’s death and resurrection repaired that, meaning that death was no longer something to be feared.
When I’ve heard this carol sung, it’s mostly quite quiet, as you would expect from a lullaby. Verse 4 tends to get louder, crescendoing up to the triumphant “Conquering Death” and then getting quieter again, as if the singers are remembering they are in the presence of a newborn baby, and that what they have been singing about is many years in the future. There is hope- but it’s hope for the future, not an end to suffering in the present. The world is still a mess. People still die and we face grief and sorrow over many things. But there is hope. Now, and not yet.
