The original title of this poem is “Christmas Eve,” and it was published in a book of poems and short stories by Eugene Field called Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse. So those facts would seem to end the matter. It’s a lullaby being sung by a mother to her child at Christmas, with stars and angels in the mix. It must be Mary singing to the baby Jesus, right? Well, I don’t think so.
Why not? First of all, look at the illustration that goes with the poem. It’s of an early 1900’s mother and child—and note the “child” part, as it’s not a baby. Secondly, consider the title: “Christmas Eve,” not “Christmas Night.” Nit-picky to the max, I know, but still! It’s taking place the night before Christmas. I will also take a little credit myself here and say that I found the words of the song to be puzzling the first time I heard it, even before I knew the original title, because there seemed to be a muddle about who’s being addressed. The child who is being sung to sleep is told to “hear the Master calling” and reminded that “the Shepherd calls his little lambs.” It seems clear that the Master and Shepherd titles refer to someone other than the child, right? That’s the way I read it, anyway.
So here’s my take on the song: It’s a lullaby, sung by a mother to her beloved child. Tomorrow is Christmas Day, so that idea gets woven into her song. I will point out that the line “the stars shall dance” is in the future tense. So the mother is singing about what’s going to happen tomorrow, on Christmas. But even with the stars dancing and the heavenly throng singing, she wants the child to hear the Master’s voice.
I’m almost afraid to suggest this final idea, but it occurred to me and so here it is: You could take the words to suggest that the child is dying. The line about hearing the Master’s call could indicate that interpretation. Field wrote very much in the Victorian tradition (even though he was American), and the Victorians were quite fond of their sentimental poems and stories about the deaths of children and young women. (That’s not meant as a criticism—they had to deal with a lot of death.) While the actual collection of Field’s Christmas poems and stories was published in 1912, 17 years after his tragically early death at the age of 45 in 1895, this poem was first published, in an anthology of sacred verse, in 1896. There are five Fields poems in the collection, and besides this one there’s “The Dead Babe” and “The Peace of Christmas-Time,” the latter dealing with parents’ remembrance of a child they lost even as they watch their other children celebrate the holiday. So I don’t know how to take that, but it seems suggestive. One of Fields’ most famous poems is “Little Boy Blue,” describing toys left behind by a child who died, and Fields lost a son of his own. Whatever the specific meaning, though, I don’t think this song can be put in the Mary-lullaby column.
The poem was set to music by Anne Kilstofte, a contemporary American composer; “Hush” was written in 1994. I was unable to find an individual YouTube video of the piece, so here’s the video of the first half of my own choir’s concert in Oct. 2017. “Hush” starts at 11:30. (Or you can watch the whole thing!)
Oh, hush thee, little Dear-my-Soul,
The evening shades are falling,–
Hush thee, my dear, dost thou not hear
The voice of the Master calling?
Deep lies the snow upon the earth,
But all the sky is ringing
With joyous song, and all night long
The stars shall dance, with singing.
Oh, hush thee, little Dear-my-Soul,
And close thine eyes in dreaming,
And angels fair shall lead thee where
The singing stars are beaming.
A shepherd calls his little lambs,
And he longeth to caress them;
He bids them rest upon his breast,
That his tender love may bless them.
So, hush thee, little Dear-my-Soul,
Whilst evening shades are falling,
And above the song of the heavenly throng
Thou shalt hear the Master calling.
© Debi Simons
