To watch over you when a baby

by Janet Appleyard
(Perth, Western Australia, Australia)

Words to Lullaby:

To watch over you when a baby,
to sing you to sleep as a child,
To always be near you,
to comfort and cheer you,
to teach you the right from the wrong..

To do all she can,
just to make you a man,
and over a thousand (hundred?) things more..

To sigh for you,
cry for you -
Yes! Even die for you..
That's what God made mothers for.

Information about the song: I know nothing other than it was almost certainly English in origin.
I worked out the notes (melody) to this lullaby (by ear), if anyone is interested. unfortunately, I haven't got any of the duration of the notes (crotchet, semi-breve etc.), which might make it difficult, though.

The lullaby he reserved for little special private moments (e.g. polishing shoes on the back porch) was Liebesträume (If you check Wikpedia, this was only the third of three Lizst wrote, all named the same. He knew it in an older English and in German, too.


Information about me:
My Dad (now deceased)was as old as most of my peers Grandfathers. He was the only surviving child of an English couple who came to Western Australia. (His little brother died from scarlet fever in infancy or before the age of 2, anyway.) He lived in Perth suburbia (West Leederville) in the days when you didn't lock your doors and people used to sing around the piano - lucky ducks in my opinon!

Dad and I used to sing around the dishes (He'd wash, I'd dry - dishwashers only became more common when I was at high school - my family never had one.) My brother and mother would go: "They're off again!" That didn't bother us!
I also learnt many songs from the First WW, that Dad's Mother had taught HIM; also many of the songs popular with Dad's generation, as well as songs from the Second WW (which he flew in, based in Darwin). He also taught me to love G & S and "My Fair Lady" and many other fine musicals of that time. My own generation song's (teenage years) was at the time of ABBA. I loved them all.