My summer babytime session started up last week, and I’m thrilled to be back in the library with all the little babies!
One of my all-time favourite baby time songs is a gentle little traditional lullaby called “I See The Moon.” We typically only sing the first two verses, but the entire lullaby is really quite stunning.
Maybe it’s because I have an active imagination, maybe it’s because I have a writer’s heart, but this song always makes me choke up just a little bit. The second verse is so quietly evocative, and filled with such longing – the speaker is separated from their loved one by mountains and sea, and longs to be back with them, which is such a heartbreaking image. In a way, I think it’s a feeling that a lot of the participants in my program can relate to – we have a lot of families who have been impacted by migration, whether as immigrants or refugees, and almost everyone has at some point been separated from the ones they love.
So many children’s songs and rhymes have such layers of meaning (“You Are My Sunshine”, for example, is one of the saddest songs of all time once you move beyond the first verse).
I See the Moon
I see the moon, the moon sees me
shining through the leaves of the old oak tree
Oh, let the light that shines on me
shine on the one I love.
Over the mountain, over the sea,
back where my heart is longing to be
Oh, let the light that shines on me
shine on the one I love.
I hear the lark, the lark hears me
singing from the leaves of the old oak tree
Oh, let the lark that sings to me
sing to the one I love,
Over the mountains, over the sea
back where my heart is longing to be
Oh, let the lark that sings to me
sing to the one I love.
Here’s an instrumental version of the song that’s quite lovely:
And for something completely different, a Hawaiian/Australian interpretation!
Have a great weekend, poetry friends!
I don’t believe I’ve really looked at all the verses. Thank you for sharing them. I have such good memories of my mother singing this song when I was very little. It’s always been with me. On the night of her funeral, the biggest orangest and then silver moon loomed above my Dad and sisters as we sat exhausted on the deck recovering from the day. That song was with me then. I call the full moon in July, my Mom’s Moon. And, her name was Diane. So, you’ve touched me deeply today.
I need to find that Calvin & Hobbes cartoon that you referenced! It makes me laugh just reading your description.
Enjoy the babies….they are so wonderful.
Oh Linda, thank you for your beautiful comment! Isn’t it incredible the way that music can touch us so deeply, and immediately transport us to another place and time? We say that a song is stuck “in our head”, but music is really in our hearts.
Thanks for this lovely gift! I only remembered the first verse from reciting it to my children many years ago-but know I know it’s a much lovelier poem than I have known!
I had no idea how common and beloved this song is – it’s so wonderful to think of so many mothers and grandmothers singing the same songs to their little ones, years and miles apart!
I grew up singing this too, Jane. What nice memories you shared, too. You share so many wonderful things with those ‘babies’!
It’s such a wonderful privilege to be able to connect in some way with these little ones and the people who love them.
Thank you for sharing! I have been looking for lullabies for my little ones, and I’ve never actually heard this one. Thank you.
I remember singing this one with my kids when they were small. A friend of mine does library time for wee little ones. They’re so attached to her!
I had a mum ask to take my picture with her and her baby last week, which was a first for me! I felt like a celebrity!
I feel that way about my children when they aren’t with me. So powerful to use nature to show a longing for connection.
My thoughts exactly!
I must have heard this song before, but somehow I never picked up on it. It really is lovely, so maybe I’ll learn it to sing to my grandson. (His favorite song is “Zoom, Zoom, Zoom/I’m going to the moon.”)
I do Zoom Zoom every single week, without fail! It’s one of my favourites, too!
I hadn’t thought of this in such a long time. I don’t think I knew any of the verses past the first 1 or 2.
Like others have mentioned, this is an old favorite I haven’t thought of in years. Thank you for sharing it today, Jane!
I love discovering new songs, but there’s something so special about these old favourites!
Just out of curiosity, I looked up the lyrics of You Are My Sunshine. YIKES! That song will never be the same for me!!
The moon song/poem is very evocative.
Ha, yes! My coworker was talking about how sad You Are My Sunshine is, and I was so confused, so I looked it up a while ago, and I was shocked! All these years I’d had no idea!!
I too hear this in the voice of my mother, and I too was unaware of the other verses. For some reason I had the impression that this may have been a popular hit in the ’40’s. Or maybe I’m mixing it up with the “Glow little glowworm” one she also sang. Lovely to sing with the babies and their grown-ups! I must get back to the preschoolers…
Isn’t that wonderful! I don’t remember my mum singing this (though she remembered it, when I mentioned it to her!), but I do remember her singing other songs to me as a child. Isn’t it incredible the way our memories work – you might not think about a song for decades, but then you come across it and all of a sudden you can heard that voice in your mind as clear as day!