Here it is Halloween and I have not posted one costume. This is not actually a costume, either, but a lovely Victorian Lace nightgown that could be worn year round. However, something about it reminds me of the most frightening of Mother Goose rhymes, Babes in the Woods:

My dear do you know,
How a long time ago,
Two poor little children,
Whose names I don’t know,
Were stolen away
On a fine summers day,
And left in a wood,
As I’ve heard people say,

Poor babes in the wood! poor babes in the wood!
Oh! don’t you remember the babes in the wood?

And when it was night,
So sad was their plight,
The sun it went down,
And the moon gave no light!
They sobbed and they sighed,
And they bitterly cried,
And the poor little things,
They lay down and died.

Poor babes in the wood! poor babes in the wood!
Oh! don’t you remember the babes in the wood?

And when they were dead,
The robins so red
Brought strawberry leaves,
And over them spread;
And all the day long,
The branches among,
They mournfully whistled,
And this was their song;

Poor babes in the wood! poor babes in the wood!
Oh! don’t you remember the babes in the wood?

The nightgown from Studio Sidhe is such an iconic gown that would be appropriate for so many interpretations. I could imagine it as Mina’s gown in Bram Stoker’s Dracula or the nightie that Anne of Green Gables wore when reenacting the Lady of Shallot on the pond. I can see Jo March and her sisters wearing it, too. But, it’s Halloween and this gown reminds me of the heartbreaking illustration of Babes in the Woods from my childhood Illustrated Mother Goose and the little white  nightie worn by the little girl.

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