Wayland Rogers - Hush, My Babe  

  
The poem is by the prolific 17th century English hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674-1748) and is the last of forty-six poems to be found in his collection, "Divine and Moral Songs". These poems, published in 1715, were expressly written for the moral education of children and were intended to be sung by them to the familiar psalm tunes of the day. Through the years the poem, which originally had 14 verses, has been set to other hymn tunes as well as this one. The three verses used here are the ones in common usage.
The composer of the haunting pentatonic melody is unknown. Like most early American hymn tunes it was probably an Anglo-Saxon secular song newly fitted with sacred words. It first apears in "Souther Harmony" an important shape-note hymnal published in 1835 by William Walker. There the tune is called "Restoration" and is sung to "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing". Many may know it as "I Will Arise and Go To Jesus".