Rock A Bye, Babies

    "Rock a bye, babies,
    Your cradle hangs high;
    Soft down your pillow,
    Your curtain the sky.
    Father will feed you,
    While mother will sing,
    And shelter our darlings
    With her warm wing."

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel 'Little Women' and its sequels 'Little Men' and 'Jo's Boys.' Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, she grew up in Massachusetts. She was an abolitionist and a feminist and was active in both the Transcendentalist and suffragist movements. Alcott began writing to support her family and went on to publish numerous works that have had a lasting impact on American literature.

Louisa May Alcott

Fairy Song.

Louisa May Alcott, Simple Poetry

Flowers, dear flowers, farewell!

Louisa May Alcott, Simple Poetry

The Downward Road.

Louisa May Alcott, Simple Poetry

Lily-Bell

Louisa May Alcott, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

Nursery Rhyme. CCCXCIV. Lullabies.

    Hush-a-bye, baby, on the tree top,
    When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
    When the bough bends, the cradle will fall,
    Down will come baby, bough, cradle, and all.

Unknown

Nursery Rhyme. CCCCIII. Lullabies.

    Rock well my cradle,
        And "bee baa," my son;
    You shall have a new gown,
        When ye lord comes home.

    Oh! still my child, Orange,
        Still him with a bell;
    I can't still him, ladie,
        Till you come down yoursell!

Unknown

Nursery Rhyme. CCCXCI. Lullabies.

    Rock-a-bye, baby, thy cradle is green;
    Father's a nobleman, mother's a queen;
    And Betty's a lady, and wears a gold ring;
    And Johnny's a drummer, and drums for the king.

Unknown

Nursery Rhyme. CCCXCVI. Lullabies.

    Bye, baby bunting,
    Daddy's gone a hunting,
    To get a little hare's skin
    To wrap a baby bunting in.

Unknown

Hush-A-By Baby

Hush-a-by baby on the tree-top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock;
When the bough breaks the cradle will fall--
Down comes baby, cradle and all!

Walter Crane

By The Cradle.

The baby Summer lies asleep and dreaming--
Dreaming and blooming like a guarded rose;
And March, a kindly nurse, though rude of seeming,
Is watching by the cradle hung with snows.

Her blowing winds but keep the rockers swinging,
And deepen slumber in the shut blue eyes,
And the shrill cadences of her high singing
Are to the babe but wonted lullabies.

She draws the coverlet white and tucks it trimly,
She folds the little sleeper safe from harm;
Or bends to lift the veil, and, peering inly,
Makes sure it lies all undisturbed and warm.

And so she sits, till in the still, gray dawning
Two fairer nurses come, her place to take,
And smiling, beaming, with no word of warning,
Draw off the quilt, and kiss the babe awake.

Susan Coolidge