"Sweet and Low" is a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Written in 1849,[1] Tennyson sent two versions of the poem to Emily Sellwood in November,[2][3] asking her to select which one to include in the revised 1850 edition of The Princess,[4] where it intercalates canto II and III.[5]
Charles Kingsley in a review in Fraser's Magazine (September 1850) found the poem so exquisite that he quoted it in full,[6][7] and it became, as did the other five "songs" inserted in 1850 edition of The Princess, a poem widely translated in Europe.[8]
Text
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.
Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest, on mother's breast,
Father will come to thee soon;
Father will come to his babe in the nest,
Silver sails all out of the west,
Under the silver moon:
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.
^Morton Luce (1971). Tennyson. Folcroft Library Editions. ISBN978-0-8414-5629-7. Canto iii. is prefixed the exquisite cradle song Sweet and Low, in which a child is a bond of love between parents who are sundered by distance.
^The federal reporter. 1970. pp. 1096–. While the record does not refer to it, the genesis of the mark would appear to be Alfred Lord Tennyson's song, included in "The Princess" at the conclusion of Part II, Sweet and low, sweet and low, Wind of the Western sea, ...