The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #23244   Message #1238024
Posted By: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
31-Jul-04 - 04:46 PM
Thread Name: Origins: How Pretty the Moon Looks Tonight
Subject: Lyr Add: HOW PRETTY THE MOON IS TONIGHT
Its in our family repertoire- we used to speculate that some ancestor found it as a poem in a magazine, and put a tune to it. On twilights when the new moon was going down in the west, young girls would sing this song "to the moon," in gratitude that she had returned to the sky. Or,at family sings on the porch, evenings.


HOW PRETTY THE MOON IS TONIGHT

O Mother, how pretty the moon is tonight,
She was never so cunning before
Her two little horns are so sharp and so bright-
I hope she won't grow anymore.

CHO: I hope she won't grow anymore
      Her two little horns are so sharp and so bright-
      I hope she won't grow anymore.

If I were up there with you and my friends,
I'd rock, so nicely you'd see;
I'd sit in the middle and hold by both ends-
O what a nice cradle 'twould be.

I'd call to the stars to look out of my way,
Lest I should rock over their toes;
I'd rock and I'd rock till the dawn of the day,
And see where the pretty moon goes.

I'd stay up there in the beautiful skies,
And on the bright clouds I would roam;
I'd see the sun set and see the sun rise
And on the next rainbow come home!

The "chorus" between each verse begins with the last line of the verse just sung, followed by the third line and last line, again, of each verse.

We dearly loved this little song, and many's the night I have gone to sleep surrounded by Mom, Dad, and my sisters and brothers singing around me on our front porch. But I don't think I have ever recorded it, or at least I cannot remember it if I have.