Written in 1849,[1] Tennyson sent two versions of the poem to Emily Sellwood in November,[2][3] asking her to select which one to include in the revised 1850 edition of The Princess,[4] where it intercalates canto II and III.
[5] Charles Kingsley in a review in Fraser's Magazine (September 1850) found the poem so exquisite that he quoted it in full,[6][7] and it became, as did the other five "songs" inserted in 1850 edition of The Princess, a poem widely translated in Europe.
[9] The title has been reused used many times, notably by Benjamin Eisenstadt in 1957 for his artificial sweetener brand Sweet'n Low.
[10][11] Mary Higgins Clark's 1989 novel While My Pretty One Sleeps takes its title from the first stanza.
This article related to a poem from the UK or its predecessor states is a stub.