Angel's Whisper, The

DESCRIPTION: "A baby was sleeping, its mother was weeping." Her husband, Dermot, is fishing in a storm. She prays that the angels always watching over her baby would now watch over her husband. He returns safely in the morning.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1847 (Journal of William Histed of the Cortes)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea storm religious baby husband wife return reunion
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 239-240, "Angels Whisper" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 34, "The Angel's Whisper" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 1074, "The Angel's Whisper" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 21, "Angels' Whisper" (1 text)
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #43, p. 4, "Angel's Whisper" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #5/72, p. 18 and #5/64, pp. 17-18, "Angel's Whisper" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, p. 115, "The Angel's Whisper"
Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 408-409, "The Angel's Whisper" (1 text)
ST OCon034 (Partial)
Roud #2061
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 151, "The Angel's Whisper", J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(3366), Firth c.26(36), Firth b.34(99), Johnson Ballads 1407, Firth c.26(288), Firth b.26(369), Harding B 11(1427), Firth b.25(68), Harding B 11(442), 2806 c.13(104), Firth b.28(38), Harding B 11(64), "[The] Angel's Whisper"
LOCSheet, sm1883 09445, "The Angels' Whisper", Carl Prufer (Boston), 1883 (tune)
LOCSinging, sb10009a, "The Angel's Whisper", J. Andrews (New York), 1853-1859; also as100320, "Angel's Whisper"
NOTES [131 words]: O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland and some web sites make the author Thomas Moore (1779-1852). Other sites make the author Samuel Lover (1797-1868); Hoagland also lists Lover as the author. The PoemHunter site, for example, lists 145 poems by Moore and does not include this one. The broadsides have no attribution.
How reliable are O'Conor attributions? See also "Barney Brallaghan."
Broadside LOCSheet sm1883 09445:sheet claims the words are by Samuel Lover.
[Granger's Index to Poetry also lists it as by Lover, but with no original publication; the only citation is Hoagland. - RBW]
Broadside LOCSinging sb10009a: J. Andrews dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
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File: OCon034

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