Sibylline Leaves (Coleridge)/The Virgin's Cradle-Hymn

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

THE VIRGIN'S CRADLE-HYMN.

Copied from a Print of the Virgin, in a Catholic village in Germany.

 

Dormi, Jesu! Mater ridet,
Quae tam dulcem somnum videt,
Dormi, Jesu! blandule!
Si non dormis, Mater plorat,
Inter fila cantans orat
Blande, veni, somnule.

ENGLISH.

Sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling:

Mother sits beside thee smiling:
Sleep, my darling, tenderly!
If thou sleep not, mother mourneth.
Singing as her wheel she turneth:
Come, soft slumber, balmily!