Oh, many’s the time in the evening
When the light has fled over the sea,
That I dream alone in the gloaming
Of the joys that are not for me;
And oft in my sorrowful bosom
Swells up the mother-love flame,
And I clasp with arms that are trembling
My child that never came;
Singing—“Hush thee—hush thee—hush-a-by, darling,
Nestle thee deeper in mother’s breast,
Oh, hush thee—hush thee—hush-a-by, darling,
Tenderest angels will guard thy rest.”
The candles far down in the city
Shine out thro’ the purplish gray,
And the stars come out in the heavens
And glimmer across the bay;
The murmuring waves steal homeward
From the ocean’s larger blue,
As I dream alone in the gloaming
Of the child that I never knew;
Singing—“Hush thee—hush thee—hush-a-by, darling,
Nestle thee deeper in mother’s breast,
Oh, hush thee—hush thee—hush-a-by, darling,
Tenderest angels will guard thy rest.”
Oh, the little warm cheek in my bosom,
Oh, the little wet lips at the breast,
Oh, the clinging wee satiny fingers
To my longing lips that are pressed!
There was never a song that was sweeter,
Tho’ its singer be laurelled with fame,
Than the song that I sing in the gloaming
To the child that never came:
“Oh, hush thee—hush thee—hush-a-by, darling,
Nestle thee deeper in mother’s breast,
Oh, hush thee—hush thee—hush-a-by, darling,
Tenderest angels will guard thy rest.”
The hours swim on to the midnight,
The moon looks over the hill,
And the u-lu-lu of the night-owl
Sinks mournfully and shrill;
The solitude aches with rapture,
And my heart with the mother-love flame,
As I sing alone in the gloaming
To the child that never came:
“Oh, hush thee—hush thee—hush-a-by, darling,
Nestle thee deeper in mother’s breast,
Oh, hush thee—hush thee—hush-a-by, darling,
Tenderest angels will guard thy rest.”
“The Childless Mother’s Lullaby” as it appears in Higginson’s The Voice of April-Land (1903).
A draft of “The Childless Mother’s Lullaby,” courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham Washington.