The New Moon | Mama Lisa's World Blog

A Poem and Song called “The New Moon”

Thursday, March 8th, 2007

It’s always a happy day when I can answer a reader’s question about a song, nursery rhyme or poem. I was recently asked by Marion to help her find “a nursery rhyme my mother used to say to me in the very early 1930’s. Don’t know the name, but the first couple of lines are:

‘Oh Mother how pretty the moon looks tonight
She was never so cunning before,
With her two little arms so sharp and so bright,
I hope she won’t grow any more.’

The end of the rhyme was:

‘I’d sit in the middle and hold by both hands
And on the next rainbow come home.’

Have become a grandmother at last and would so love to tell and teach this to my sweet granddaughter.”

I was able to find the words to this poem. It’s called The New Moon. The poem was first printed in 1832 in a book by Eliza Lee Follen called Little Songs. It was either written by Eliza Lee Follen, or it was traditional at the time she published it. She also printed The Three Little Kittens in the same book (another nursery rhyme which many people attribute to her). It may also simply have been traditional at the time.

Here’s the version of The New Moon from Follen’s book Little Songs:

THE NEW MOON

Dear mother, how pretty
The moon looks to-night!
She was never so cunning before;
Her two little horns
Are so sharp and so bright,
I hope she’ll not grow any more.

If I were up there
With you and my friends,
I’d rock in it nicely you see;
I’d sit in the middle
And hold by both ends;
O, what a bright cradle ‘twould be!

I would call to the stars
To keep out of the way,
Lest we should rock over their toes,
And there I would rock
Till the dawn of the day,
And see where the pretty moon goes.

And there we would stay
In the beautiful skies,
And through the bright clouds we would roam;
We would see the sun set,
And see the sun rise,
And on the next rainbow come home.

That’s a lovely poem! People eventually started singing it as a song in the southern United States. The lyrics to the “song” version are close to this:

How Pretty the Moon Looks Tonight

Oh, Mother, how pretty the moon looks tonight
She was never so cunning before
Her two little horns are too sharp and so bright
I hope they’ll not grow any more.

If I were up there with you and the moon
We’d rock in it nightly, you see.
We’d sit in the middle and hold to both ends
Oh, what a fine cradle ‘twould be!

We’d call to the stars to get out of our way,
‘Lest we should rock over their toes.
And there we would stay ’til the dawn of the day
And see where the pretty moon goes.

If anyone would like to send a recording of this poem being sung or recited, I’d be happy to post it.

Enjoy!

Lisa

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