Lyrics to Butterfly Room Songs

Late Summer 2008

Morning Songs

Rinca ranca rosy ray,

Welcome, welcome golden day.
Windows open wide.
Light will shine inside. (lyrics traditional, Gateways by Wynstones press)

Good Morning to you, and sweet be thy day.

May angels around you their silent watch keep.
Good day, good day, good morning, good day.
(melody traditional German; often sung with different words as a lullaby; I
learned these words from Rena Osmer at Rudolf Steiner college)

Morning has come, night is away.

We rise with the sun to welcome the day. (Gateways)

Morning has broken

Like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing,
And praise for the morning.
Praise for the springing
Fresh from the word.

Sweet the rain’s new fall

Sunlit from heaven.
Like the first dew fall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where His feet pass.

Mine is the sunlight.

Mine is the morning.
Born of the one light
Eden saw play.
Praise with elation.
Praise every morning.
God’s recreation
Of the new day.
(melody traditional Irish/Scottish? lyrics more modern?)

Mother morning,
I must leave you.
I must go to follow the light.
Mother evening,
I will return to you,
Safely held in the arms of night.
(learned at a bonfire at a parent & child teacher’s conference at Camp
Glenbrook, New Hampshire)

Morning comes early and bright with dew.

Under your window I’ll sing to you.
Up then my comrade, up then my comrade.
Let us be greeting the morn so new.

Why do you linger so long in bed.

Open your window and show your head.
Up then with singing, up then with singing.
Over the meadow the sun shines red.
(Rise up Singing and Seven Times the Sun. Song is traditional)

Joy, joy, joy comes in the morning.

Joy, joy, joy comes.
Morning glory, morning joy.
(Seven Times the Sun)

Morning Work Songs

(for oiling the baking pans)

Twinkle, twinkle little star.

How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Are you a gateway in the sky?
Are you the twinkle in an angel’s eye?
Shine your starry light to earth.
Bring a thousand stars to birth.
Stars on apple, seedpod, pear.
Stars on berries everywhere.
So you guard me near and far,
Twinkle, twinkle little star.
(traditional, Mozart?, new lyrics by Margret Meyerkort)

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, Baker’s man.

Bake me some bread as fast as you can.
Roll it and knead it and mark it with a b.
Put it in the oven for baby and me.
(traditional, changed for bread)

Come, butter, come! Come, butter, come!

William’s at the garden gate,
Waiting for a butter cake.
Come, butter, come! Come, butter, come!
(Spindrift by Wynstones publishers)

Cushy cow bonnie let down thy milk,

And I will give you a gown of silk.
A gown of silk and a silver T
If thou wilt let down thy milk for me.
(Mother Goose? from Spindrift)

When you’re feeling sad, tired of being blue,

Get yourself a new broom, and this is what you do:
Start a-sweeping the clouds causing all the gloom.
Sweep away your troubles with a new broom.

So sweep, sweep, keep a-sweeping Jack.

There’s a blue sky beneath the clouds of black.
So sweep, sweep, sweep away the gloom.
Sweep away your troubles with a new broom.
(Texas Swing song on a mix tape given to Kelly and me as a wedding present)

Snack Time
Welcome, welcome to our table (Nancy Foster).

Boomsti, Woomsti,
Booly booly booly booly bop.
Boomsti, Woomsti,
Wooly, wooly, wooly, wooly wop.
Boomsti Woomsti, Boomsti Woomsti, Boomsti Woomsti bup!
Boomsti, Woomsti
Booly booly wooly wooly Wup!
(Wilma Ellersiek, The Dancing Hand, not yet published).

Golden light, shine so bright.

Golden light, share your might.
Make us strong and make us bold.
Turn our word to living gold.
(words by Margret Meyerkort? melody by William Dolde)

Tip top Tim, Why so Grim?

I’m not Grim. I’m Tip Top Tim!
(traditional; from Sing a Song for Baby?)

Earth who gives to us this food.

Sun who makes it ripe and good.
Dearest earth and dearest sun,
We’ll not forget what you have done.
(traditional or Morganstern? German words translated. Melody
varies from teacher to teacher).

The silver rain, the golden sun,

The fields where scarlet poppies run,
And all the ripples in the wheat
Are in the bread that we do eat.

So when we gather for every meal

And give our thanks we always feel
That we are eating rain and sun
And fields where scarlet poppies run.
(words from a Waldorf teacher’s conference; melody William Dolde)

Thanks to the farmer for sowing the seed.

Thanks to Mother Nature for sun and rain.
Thanks to the gardener for pulling every weed.
Thanks to the miller for grinding the grain.
Thank you for out snack.
(William Dolde)

Here is a spark of Father Sun’s light

To keep in our hearts so warm and bright.
(Nancy Foster)

Washing Dishes

Row row row your boat

Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
(traditional)

Which is the way the wind blows over the silver sea?
Bringing a ship for father and a golden dream for me.

Which is the way the wind blows over the silver sea?
Bringing a gown for mother and a silver shoe for me.

Which is the way the wind blows over the silver sea?
Bringing a moon for mother and a tiny star for me.
(Gateways from Wynstones collection)

Glide my boat go gliding.

Glide my boat now glide.
Glide upon the water in the world so wide.
Rock my boat you’re rocking.
Rocking light and free.
Rock upon the waves until you reach the sea,
Gliding gliding gliding, gliding gliding gliding.
Rocking rocking rocking, rocking rocking rocking.
Finally arrived we are.
What a long trip from afar!
In the harbor deep
At night my boat will sleep.
Hmm mmmm mmmmmmmm.
(Wilma Ellersiek)
We roll the old chariot along.
We roll the old chariot along.
We roll the old chariot along.
And we all fall in behind.

A little bit of wind (sun, rain, and soforth) wouldn’t do us any harm.
A little bit of wind (sun, rain, and soforth) wouldn’t do us any harm.
A little bit of wind (sun, rain, and soforth) wouldn’t do us any harm.
And we all fall in behind.
(traditional sea shanty)

The lady moon up yonder is like a silver boat

Upon a dark blue ocean all silently afloat.
And when the fairies waken they cross the moonbeams white
And far across the heavens go sailing in the night.

Cleaning up Baby Dolls and Toys

So so so, all to rest must go.

Soo soo soo, baby sleep now, too.

In their cosy nest, birdies take take their rest.

So so so, all to rest must go.
Soo soo soo, baby sleep now, too.

In the barn the sheep dream in slumber deep.

So so so, all to rest must go.
Soo soo soo, baby sleep now, too.

In the heavens far twinkle many stars.

So so so, all to rest must go.
Soo soo soo, baby sleep now, too.
(Wilma Ellersiek)

Rock-a-bye baby in the tree top

When the wind blows your cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks your cradle will fall,
And down will come baby cradle and all.
(Traditional; many think the words reflect ancient folk wis-
dom that our babies choose us and come down to us with “cradle and all”--the trappings of the
spiritual world Wordsworth writes about: children come “trailing clouds of glory.”)

Everything in its place.

Everything in its place.
A place for everything.
Everything in its place.
(Seven Times the Sun)

Now I walk in beauty.

Beauty is before me.
Beauty is behind me,
Above and below me.

Now I walk in beauty.

Beauty is beside me.
Beauty is around me,
Within and without me.
(Traditional Native American. I know I have changed the
melody slightly.)

Weary me, all alone,

Gathering bracken, gathering bracken.
Up the hillside, down the hillside,
All day long so lonely.

Should I see you appear,

Coming over, down the hillside,
No more sad would I be,
With you here beside me.
(“A Fairy’s Love Song,” Scotland)
Farewell

I dance with the flowers.

I sing with the sun.
The warmth in my heart
I bring everyone. (Nancy Foster)

Make new friends and keep the old

One is silver and the other gold.
A circle is round. It has no end.
That’s how long I want to be your friend.
(closing circle of nursery with the kindergarten)

Birthday Songs

In heaven shines a golden star.

An angel led me from afar.
From heaven high unto the earth
And brought me to my house of birth.

O welcome welcome lovely day

With sunshine bright and flowers gay,
And all my friends to sing their song
To make me brave and kind and strong.

We wish you a very merry birthday

A joyous and celebrated birthday.
To our dear friend . . .
May s/he have a joyous life.