A child remembers a mother who sang, sewed, and spun a glittering fantasy around her baby. The mother made a golden cradle, stitched a golden gown, and braided gold into the child’s hair, convinced the child was meant for a crown. Her song says a man went away when the child was born, and she half-mythologizes the child’s conception through a sea-bird’s cry and yellow sea foam. The speaker does not mock her; instead, the tone is tender and sad. The mother’s love comes through clearly, but it is tangled with longing and disappointment, so the promised crown becomes “the golden top of care” — a beautiful burden rather than a simple blessing. The mood is dreamy, melancholy, and quietly knowing.
The Player Queen — Summary
My mother dandled me and sang, 'How young it is, how young!' And made a golden cradle That on a willow swung.
'He went away,' my mother sang, 'When I was brought to bed,' And all the while her needle pulled The gold and silver thread.
She pulled the thread and bit the thread And made a golden gown, And wept because she had dreamt that I Was born to wear a crown.
'When she was got,' my mother sang, 'I heard a sea-mew cry, And saw a flake of the yellow foam That dropped upon my thigh.'
How therefore could she help but braid The gold into my hair, And dream that I should carry The golden top of care?