Bruce Cockburn (pronounced "CO-burn") (born May 27, 1945 in Ottawa, Ontario… Read Full Bio ↴Bruce Cockburn (pronounced "CO-burn") (born May 27, 1945 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) has had a long and distinguished career, with much success in his native Canada. He has written songs in styles ranging from folk to jazz-influenced rock to rock and roll. Cockburn was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2012 he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (in Canada the award was to honour "significant contributions and achievements by Canadians").

Cockburn's early albums were fairly straight ahead folk music spotlighting his brilliant guitar playing. In fact, there were a good number of instrumental guitar numbers on those early recordings. A Christian element came into his music around the time of the album Salt, Sun and Time, and over time his writing has taken on a stronger and stronger political orientation.

Perhaps the most consistent element of Cockburn's music has been his willingness to change and evolve over time. In this way, he is similar to fellow Canadians Joni Mitchell and Neil Young.

He has had a couple of radio hits in the United States, including (Wondering Where the Lions Are and If I Had a Rocket Launcher).

His albums in the 80s are considered some of his strongest, including Humans, Inner City Front, Stealing Fire, and Big Circumstance. After Big Circumstance he struggled with writer's block, and his output began to slow down; but he recovered with the formidable Nothing But a Burning Light, which led the way back to a sparer, more folk-oriented form of music. His later album The Charity of Night contains one of his most thoughtful songs, Pacing the Cage.

His 2006 album Life Short Call Now was preceded by Speechless, a collection of instrumentals, many of them from earlier albums. The album highlights Cockburn's prodigious abilities as a guitarist.

Cockburn's 31st studio album,Small Source of Comfort was released in March, 2011. BruceCockburn.com called the album "an adventurous collection of songs of romance, protest and spiritual discovery. The album, primarily acoustic yet rhythmically savvy, is rich in Cockburn’s characteristic blend of folk, blues, jazz and rock."

God Bless The Children
Bruce Cockburn Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Night comes
The mask of the world
Resolves into round bits of silver on the table
Round arrow nocked against the bow
Round fruit devoured by time
While the moon climbs

Sea swells

Illusion is queen
In the shallow graves of experience time-centred
Grave silence reigns over the stars
Graven image hanging in time
While the earth unwinds

With rain the world grows us older
Lord let us not be lost
God bless the children with knowledge of the cost

Day comes
The hawk of gold
Springs forth in flame from a highway paved with diamonds
Lion rampant on a green field
Ramparts cracked into the sky
While the Christ stands by

With pain the world paves us over

Lord let us not betray
God bless the children with visions of the Day

Overall Meaning

Bruce Cockburn's song "God Bless The Children" presents a lyrical meditation on the nature of time and the meaning of existence within it. The first stanza of the song evokes the sense of the world at night, with the silver of moonlight transforming the ordinary objects of everyday life into something essential and abstract. The round arrow and round fruit suggest completion and cyclicality, while also hinting at the destructive forces of time that consume everything in the end. In this realm of illusion and shallow experience, the stars themselves are reduced to silence, while a "graven image hanging in time" reflects the timeless, mythic quality of existence.

The second stanza shifts to the day, with the "hawk of gold" emerging from a road paved with diamonds to suggest the wealth and power that humans construct for themselves in the world. However, the lion symbolizes strength and vitality still natural, despite the many ramparts cracked into the sky by human ambition. Even so, the final line of the stanza points to the central figure of Christian mythology, "while the Christ stands by," reminding the listener that the spiritual realm endures beyond all human endeavor.

The final lines of the song voice a prayer and a hope for the future, with the chorus proclaiming "Lord let us not be lost / God bless the children with knowledge of the cost" and "Lord let us not betray / God bless the children with visions of the Day." The singer recognizes the transience and fragility of human life, and the profound challenge of living ethically within it. Yet, the hope for the future is embodied in the children, who acquire new knowledge and new visions of what the world could be. The final prayer is for that hope to continue, even amid the struggles and pain that come with the passage of time.

Line by Line Meaning

Night comes
The darkness of night falls

The mask of the world
The superficiality of the world's appearance

Resolves into round bits of silver on the table
The materialistic nature of society

Round arrow nocked against the bow
The inevitability of fate

Round fruit devoured by time
The transience of worldly pleasures

While the moon climbs
The emergence of the moon in the sky

Sea swells
The rising tide of life

Illusion is queen
The illusions of life are paramount

In the shallow graves of experience time-centered
In the depths of life's experiences, time remains central

Grave silence reigns over the stars
The quiet stillness of the universe

Graven image hanging in time
The static nature of life