An American Version of

“The Babes in the Woods”

This page was last modified on June 10, 2004.

The “Babes in the Woods” has proven to be one of the most popular recitations I have posted on this website and I am constantly surprised and pleased by the numbers of people who write with questions and new information about it.

It has drawn particular interest from some of our American neighbours who have been gracious and generous enough to provide examples of their versions of the song.

I’d like to especially acknowledge the contribution of Kelly Miller of Washington and her Grandmother, Dorthea Unger-Toms of Indiana. who kindly provided the version below and the background information associated with it.

Ms. Miller wrote,

“I visited your site while looking for information about a lullaby my grandmother used to sing to me and my sister. The song is called "Babes in the Woods." I just thought you would be interested in another version and the family history behind it. My grandma passed the song on through the family and told us it was our job to teach it to our children and have them pass it on. She was very interested in genealogy and had traced our family back to John Adams and claimed that her mother's, mother's, mother had sang the same song, but that was as far back as she knew it to be carried on. She is nearing 92 years old and doesn't remember a word of the song, but she made sure my sister and I knew it by heart.  Here it is, I hope you find this interesting. I have the piano music she wrote down for it as well.”

Thanks again to Ms. Miller and Ms. Unger-Toms for their great assistance in the history of this song.

Dennis Flynn

Flynn’s Point, Colliers, Newfoundland

June 10, 2004

Disclaimer: Please note that all the versions of “Babes in the Woods” are variants of an ancient song that has been handed down by word of mouth from person-to person for well over 100 years, and perhaps even longer. It was obviously first written in a very colonial minded historical period and some of the phrases and sentiments might be politically incorrect by modern standards. I merely recorded all of them as I found them without any alterations for the sake of accuracy and as an example of local folklore, which is disappearing at an alarming rate as older storytellers die off. No disparagement to any group, racial or otherwise, is intended or should be taken.

A Midwestern American version of “Babes in the Woods”

as sang by Dorthea Unger-Toms:

My dears don't you know,
How a long time ago,
Two poor little children,
Whose names I don't know,
Were stolen away,
On a bright summer's day,
And left in the woods,
As I've heard people say.

And when it was night,
So sad was their plight,
The sun went down,
And the moon gave no light.
They sobbed and they sighed,
And they bitterly cried.
And the poor little babes,
They laid down and died.

And when they were dead,
The robins so red,
Brought strawberry leaves,
And over them spread.
And all the day long,
They sang them this song.
Poor babes, Poor babes, Poor babes in the woods.
So don't you remember the babes in the woods.

Return to Dennis Flynn's Colliers Page