Today's post is in honour of the children and adults
killed in the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut,
December 14, 2012.
***
Coventry Carol
Lullay, thou little tiny child,
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, thou little tiny child.
By, by, lully, lullay.
By, by, lully, lullay.
Lullay, thou little tiny child.
By, by, lully, lullay.
O sisters, too, how may we do,
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we sing?
For to preserve this day
This poor youngling for whom we sing?
By, by, lully, lullay.
Herod the King, in his raging,
Charged he hath this day,
Charged he hath this day,
His men of might, in his own sight,
All children young to slay.
All children young to slay.
Then woe is me, poor child, for thee,
And ever mourn and say
And ever mourn and say
For thy parting, nor say nor sing,
By, by, lully, lullay.
By, by, lully, lullay.
****
It's a sobering carol, one that speaks to parents in modern tragedies as in Newtown. What the children and parents there and in the massacre by Herod went through is all too often repeated. I think of the school girls kidnapped by Boko Haram and the terror they experienced as well.
ReplyDeleteSome carols just aren't merry and bright, and they shouldn't be.
I was thinking the same thing, Tim: on one hand it felt a bit strange to be re-running a post linked to a specific event, yet on the other it's all too relevant, unfortunately. But we can't pretend these tragedies are not part of our world. I'm glad there are songs like this, actually, because they give voice to our sorrow, individually or collectively.
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