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"Rock-a-bye Baby" has the lines "When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall--and down will come baby, cradle and all".

BUT rather than a "deadly meaning", the line may have served as a warning to new or young mothers. Words or ditties set to an easy to remember tune have long been used to teach or pass along important information. As such, musical lyrics also served as reminders.

One theory of the origins of Rock-A-Bye-Baby is that it was written after seeing mothers place babies in cradles made of tree branches (boughs) and the wind would "rock" the child. But, as all mothers can agree who've used cradles, a cradle even today is not the most stable piece of furniture, especially as babies grow and begin to roll. So the song may have been a warning to watch that the bough does not "break" and cause the cradle to "fall".

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14y ago

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