Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
Words by Eugene Field
- Takes about:
- 4 minutes to sing
- Tune:
- Our own tune, written for these words
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night Sailed off in a wooden shoe— Sailed on a river of crystal light, Into a sea of dew. “Where are you going, and what do you wish?” The old moon asked the three. “We have come to fish for the herring fish That live in this beautiful sea; Nets of silver and gold have we!” Said Wynken, Blynken, And Nod.
The old moon laughed and sang a song, As they rocked in the wooden shoe, And the wind that sped them all night long Ruffled the waves of dew. The little stars were the herring fish That lived in that beautiful sea— “Now cast your nets wherever you wish— Never afeard are we”; So cried the stars to the fishermen three: Wynken, Blynken, And Nod.
All night long their nets they threw To the stars in the twinkling foam— Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe, Bringing the fishermen home; ’Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed As if it could not be, And some folks thought ’twas a dream they’d dreamed Of sailing that beautiful sea— But I shall name you the fishermen three: Wynken, Blynken, And Nod.
Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes, And Nod is a little head, And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies Is a wee one’s trundle-bed. So shut your eyes while mother sings Of wonderful sights that be, And you shall see the beautiful things As you rock in the misty sea, Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three: Wynken, Blynken, And Nod.
Where it comes from
Eugene Field was an American newspaper columnist and poet, best loved for his verses for children. He first printed this one in March 1889, and later that year put it in A Little Book of Western Verse under the title “Dutch Lullaby”. The wooden shoe is a clog, like the ones worn in the Netherlands, which is probably why he called it Dutch.
He went on polishing it. By the time it appeared in With Trumpet and Drum, a book of his poems for children first published in 1892, it had the name we know, and the river of “misty light” had become a river of “crystal light”. These words come from that book. Field died in 1895.
The poem keeps its secret until the last verse: Wynken and Blynken are a child’s two eyes, Nod is their sleepy head, and the wooden shoe sailing the night sky is their own little bed.
Composers were setting it to music within a few years, among them Ethelbert Nevin and Reginald De Koven. De Koven’s setting is in Songs of Childhood (1896), a book of Field’s poems set to music. It’s a lively concert song that repeats and changes some of the words, so we wrote a simple rocking tune of our own that fits every verse as Field printed it. That’s the tune in the player above.
Old words
- herring: a small silver fish that swims in big shoals.
- afeard: afraid.
- ’twas: it was.
- wonderful sights that be: wonderful things there are to see.
- trundle-bed: a low bed on little wheels, kept under a bigger bed in the day.
How to sing it
- It’s a long song. On a sleepy night, sing just the first verse, or the first and the last, where the secret comes out.
- Let each “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” get slower and softer than the one before, so the last one is almost a whisper.
- In the last verse, stroke your little one’s forehead on “And Nod is a little head”.
- Swap “mother” for whoever is singing.
More lullabies
Lavender’s Blue
- Length
- 1 min to sing
- Type
- Lullaby
Sleep, Baby, Sleep
- Length
- 1 min to sing
- Type
- Lullaby
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
- Length
- 2 min to sing
- Type
- Lullaby