The well-known Northumbrian song "Bonny at morn" is a lullaby in which a mother frequently interrupts her song to berate the rest of her family for not carrying out their tasks. The baby's presence in the home has made everyone idle.

The piece is freely based on fragments of the tune, which appears in full in the central section. The 3rd and final section contains some louder and slightly more animated phrases intended to suggest the mother's frustration, but they soon give way to a return of the languid mood of the opening.