The beginnings of songs are lullabies, which have the following characteristics:
- are the first songs I heard the child.
- They have a calming effect, perhaps because they tend to be monotonous.
- The rhythm is binary, there are two alternative elements that assemble the structure. The binary structure is a dual rhythmic movement.
- The rhyme is characteristic.
- is usually sing sweetly.
- The text relates to the need for protection.
- Originally used for sleeping children, but can be sung at any time.
- are sung with the child in arms or in the cradle and accompanied by movement.
Las nanas be remembered at school as an example of parents sang ditties for children in their first years of life. By select we consider, first, the degree of suitability of its story elements to the child and the other, the desirability of introducing more and more fields of poetry. In his anthology of English children's literature, Carmen Bravo-Villasante collects a number of nannies in which we can distinguish:
- Grounds episodic own child's life, frequently touched affection:
this little child " Who hit you?
having the eyes from crying.
- Developments metaphorical, often linked to the type or characterization of the protagonist:
This child is a rose,
this child is a carnation,
this child is a mirror,
his mother looking at him.
- Literary Variations on the embodiments shown, comparisons, etc:
bird that sings in the lagoon,
not wake the child is in the cradle.
The cradle rocks
my child alone, and in the field
green poppies.
