"Sweet and Low" is a poem by

Alfred, Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

. Written in 1849, Tennyson sent two versions of the poem to Emily Sellwood in November, asking her to select which one to include in the revised 1850 edition of '' The Princess'', where it intercalates

canto The canto () is a principal form of division in medieval and modern long poetry. Etymology and equivalent terms The word ''canto'' is derived from the Italian word for "song" or "singing", which comes from the Latin ''cantus'', "song", from the ...

II and III.

Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working ...

in a review in ''

Fraser's Magazine ''Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country'' was a general and literary journal published in London from 1830 to 1882, which initially took a strong Tory line in politics. It was founded by Hugh Fraser and William Maginn in 1830 and loosely directe ...

'' (September 1850) found the poem so exquisite that he quoted it in full, and it became, as did the other five "songs" inserted in 1850 edition of ''The Princess'', a poem widely translated in Europe.

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.

In popular culture

The title has been reused used many times, notably by

Benjamin Eisenstadt Benjamin Eisenstadt (December 7, 1906 – April 8, 1996) was the designer of the modern sugar packet and developer of Sweet'N Low. He was the founder of the Cumberland Packing Corporation and a notable philanthropist. Personal life Benjamin Ei ...

in 1957 for his

artificial sweetener A sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweetness like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy than sugar-based sweeteners, making it a zero-calorie () or low-calorie sweetener. Artificial sweeteners may be d ...

brand

Sweet'n Low Sweet'n Low (stylized as Sweet'N Low) is a brand of artificial sweetener made primarily from granulated saccharin. It also contains dextrose and cream of tartar, and is distributed primarily in packets. There have been over 500 billion Sweet' ...

Mary Higgins Clark Mary Higgins Clark (born Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins (December 24, 1927 – January 31, 2020) was an American author of suspense novels. Each of her 51 books was a bestseller in the United States and various European countries, and all of he ...

's 1989 novel ''

While My Pretty One Sleeps ''While My Pretty One Sleeps'' is a 1989 novel by Mary Higgins Clark. It takes place in New York City. It was number 10 in the ''Publishers Weekly'' best selling book list that year. It is listed in the OCLC top 1000 works most widely held by lib ...

'' takes its title from the first stanza.

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop music singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classi ...

and

Gordon MacRae Albert Gordon MacRae (March 12, 1921 – January 24, 1986) was an American actor, singer and radio/television host who appeared in the film versions of two Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals ''Oklahoma!'' (1955) and ''Carousel'' (1956) and who pl ...

included the song on their 1955 album '' Memory Songs''.

References

1850 poems Poetry by Alfred, Lord Tennyson {{1850s-UK-poem-stub

Text

In popular culture

See also

References