Coventry Carol (with original lyrics)

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The original Coventry Carol is about the Massacre of the Innocents, but I wanted to write a version that speaks more directly to the Christmas story. Here are my original lyrics for Verses 2 and 3, with my analysis of the lyrics below that.

A savior born by starlit night
Lying in a manger
The Prince of Peace, the Lamb of God
Swaddled way from danger
His mother sings her lullaby
Lully, lullay, lullay

A cross is borne, the baby mourns,
Blood like roses blooming.
The King of Kings with crown of thorns
Nailed to his entombing
A mother cries, "my child, my child"
Lully, lullay, lullay


The melody of this song is just so haunting, and I wanted to keep that original sense of foreboding. But instead of the massacre of the innocent children, it portends the death of Jesus. Verse 2 is seemingly pleasant on the surface: a savior is born, there are stars, a new mother is lying peacefully with her child singing a lullaby. It uses common epithets of Jesus - Prince of Peace, Lamb of God - that appear benign. But, of course, the Lamb of God is a sacrifice, and the minor melody reminds the listener of the tragedy to come.

Verse 3 bears this out, perhaps it is even a vision given to Mary, the new mother. It is the end of the story, Jesus' suffering and death. There are parallels between the verses: a cross is borne, just as a savior was born; the baby and mother are 'mourning' and 'crying,' no longer sleeping peacefully and singing; whereas before the baby was the Prince of Peace, he has now grown to become the King of Kings, but crowned with thorns. The 'blood like roses blooming' calls on the traditional Christmas "How A Rose 'Ere Blooming" and the flower of Jesse. But these good things - a crowned king, a blooming rose - have become poisonous images associated with blood and thorns, functioning in a similar way as in "The Holly and the Ivy."

But the heart of this song is the relationship of the mother to the child. The end of Verse 3 brings Mary out of obscurity - emphasis on "a" mother as if the point of view of the song had forgotten about this woman with everything going on - and re-centers Mary at the moment of her son's death and highlights her true agony. She cannot swaddle him away from danger anymore. And yet she sings her final lullaby, "lully, lullay" to comfort him in death.

And yet, it is not a tragic song because of that beautiful, wonderful Picardy third. The last note suddenly switches to a major chord in a song filled with minor woe. And I feel this performs two feats. First, it brings the listener back to "the present," Mary cuddling her newborn child, not a care in the world, perhaps ignorant of the fate to come. But secondly and more profoundly, it foretells the Resurrection. While the song's words end with Jesus' suffering and death, this one little note wordlessly gives hope. It is the whole theme of Christmas crystalized in one: that even in the midst of darkness, there is a light.