Audiobook · read by volunteers
Selected Lullabies of Eugene Field
Eugene Field (1850–1895)
Read by Becky Miller · 12 chapters · 20 min
About the book
Few poets have written as tenderly for the nursery as Eugene Field, and this short collection gathers twelve of his cradle songs and bedtime poems. Some travel the world, with lullabies from the Netherlands, Cornwall, Japan, Norway, Orkney and Sicily, each rocking along on its own gentle rhythm. Others turn inward, speaking of a mother and child, of long ago, and of a quieter comfort drawn from the Psalms. Field wrote with a naive, childlike fancy and a plain musical ear, and his verses ask to be sung as much as read. At about eighteen minutes in all, the collection is ideal for the end of a long day, for a child who will not settle, or for any listener who wants a few minutes of simple, sincere verse read aloud by LibriVox volunteer Becky Miller. A small, soothing treasure to repeat as often as you wish.
Introduction
Eugene Field (1850 to 1895) was an American poet and journalist, widely known as the children's poet. He spent much of his career writing newspaper columns, and he turned the same fluent touch to verse for children, much of it about sleep, dreams and the tenderness between parents and little ones. The best known of these poems have lasted far longer than the daily columns that first made his name.
This selection brings together lullabies from many places. The first, the Dutch Lullaby, is the one many readers know as the poem of Wynken, Blynken and Nod, who sail off in a wooden shoe. The others borrow the flavor of other lands, sometimes lightly, as an imaginative game rather than a study of folk music. Field treats a lullaby as a small piece of theater: a quiet voice, a rocking beat and a world that shrinks to the size of a cradle.
The recording is read by a single volunteer, Becky Miller, and it runs for only a few minutes per poem, with twelve short tracks in total. That makes it easy to dip into, to repeat, or to play on a loop while a child falls asleep. Older listeners may enjoy it as a reminder of an era when sentimental verse was a respected form, and when a poet could be a household name for writing about bedtime. Because the poems are brief, you can hear a lullaby or two at a time, or let the whole set play through as a gentle end to the day. Parents and grandparents may well recognize a line or a tune from their own childhood, and newcomers can enjoy the simplicity of a verse that never tries to be more than a song.
Public domain
Eugene Field died in 1895: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text