Henry's Songbook

Cannie at e'en, bonnie at morn
Thoo's ower-lang in thy bed bonnie at morn
Cannie at e'en, bonnie at morn
Thoo's ower-lang in thy bed bonnie at morn

The sheep's in the meadow and the kye are in the corn
Thoo's ower-lang in thy bed bonnie at morn
The sheep's in the meadow and the kye are in the corn
Thoo's ower-lang in thy bed bonnie at morn

We're a' laid idle wi' the keeping o' the bairn
The lad winnae work and the lass winnae learn

The birdie's in the nest and the trout is in the burn
Thoo hinders thy mither at every turn

As sung by Jean Redpath

[1882:] The song "Bonny at Morn" gives a pretty picture of family life. The baby awakes a little too early, but the big lad and the big lass are loathe to rise; hence the interjaculatory phrase "Thou's ower lang in thy bed" in the midst of the song. (Northumbrian Minstrelsy)

[1965:] Northumbria is the only part of England with its own regional music-dialect, its own stock of melodies that are distinct in style from tunes anywhere else in the country. And of this style, Bonny at Morn is one of the masterpieces. Its peculiarity no doubt derives from the character of the local northeastern bagpipe, and the tune was surely an instrumental one before words became attached to it. A great, if neglected, pioneer folk song collector, John Bell, noted the song at the outset of the nineteenth century, but it wasn't printed until 1882, in The Northumbrian Minstrelsy. The poem takes a curious twofold form; in part it's a lullaby addressed to a baby, and in part it's reproach to a lazy son who is 'ower lang' in his bed and won't get up. (A.L. Lloyd, notes 'New Voices')