Hello and welcome to the Discourse. A Cradle Song is a poem by William Blake from his Illustrated collection Songs of Innocence published in 1789. It is a 32-line poem that can be sung as a lullaby that a mother normally sings while rocking her infant to sleep.
The poem offers two contrasting feelings and thoughts in a balance. On one hand, the narrator is at peace with her child, trying to make him sleep. All the ‘little sorrows’ and worries ‘sit and weep’ during the night as everything is calm and peaceful. However, as the dawn breaks, the peace is "stolen" from the child, and "cunning wiles" creep into the child's heart. Blake offered a contrast of day and night in his book Songs of Innocence and continued developing his theory of contraries and their importance that he postulated in his book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The mother is aware of her inability to alter or stop her child from growing up in this world and losing all of his/her innocence. She is aware of the sinful world her baby will grow up and eventually die in and that is why she cries while her sweet baby sleeps in the cradle. Blake uses the word ‘sweet’ ten times in the poem, suggesting the angelic innocence of the baby that will be lost when the child grows up.
Structure of A Cradle Song:
It is a 32-line poem set in 8 stanzas or quatrains (4 lines each). The poem follows a simple rhythm scheme of AABB in each quatrain. Blake employed the couplet structure in A Cradle Song in which each pair of lines rhyme. This couplet form offers a Cadence (the natural rhythm of a piece of text, created through a writer’s selective arrangement of words, rhymes, and meter) to the poem. Blake used Alliteration, Anaphora, Allusion, Assonance, Consonance, Enjambment, Imagery, Symbolism, Metaphor, and Simile in the poem.
Summary of A Cradle Song:
Stanza 1 and 2 (Lines 1-8)
“Sweet dreams, form a shade
O'er my lovely infant's head!
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams!
Sweet Sleep, with soft down
Weave thy brows an infant crown!
Sweet Sleep, angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child!”
The speaker is a mother who is singing a lullaby to encourage her infant to sleep. She tells the baby that it will be wonderful if he sleeps as nothing but sweet dreams and smiles hovering over him in his sleep. The mother says she can trace an angelic figure over her child who is sleeping happily, as if the angel is there to protect the child.
Both the stanzas begin with the word sweet which is repeated again in the third line of each stanza. In the first quatrain, the narrator emphasizes sleep and how it brings sweetness. In the second stanza, the mother enjoys the sight of happiness on the face of her sleeping infant. The brows of sleep over the child’s face appear like a crown to her and she could sense the presence of an angelic or divine figure, protecting the child, hovering over the infant.
Blake used Anaphora in the first two stanzas, repeating the phrases ‘Sweet dreams’ and ‘Sweet sleep’ at the beginning of the first and third line of both stanzas. Consonance is used in the opening line (Sweet dreams, form a shade) with repetition of the sound / d / in quick succession.
In the third line, the repetition of the vowel sound / e / (Sweet dreams of pleasant streams) and in the 8th line, the vowel sound of / o / (Hover over my happy child) have been repeated making use of Asonance. Enjambment has been used in both of the quatrains. Blake used metaphor and personification suggesting the sleep has brows that hover over her infant. These quatrains offer imagery and symbolism of motherly love towards her child.
Stanza 2 and 3 Lines (9-16)
“Sweet smiles, in the night Hover over my delight! Sweet smiles, mother's smiles, All the livelong night beguiles. Sweet moans, dovelike sighs, Chase not slumber from thy eyes! Sweet moans, sweeter smiles, All the dovelike moans beguiles.” The narrator observes that sweet periods of sleep at night bring a sweet smile to the face of her infant and that delights her as she smiles. The peaceful night and the calmness of her sleeping child beguiles her and she wishes the night remain lifelong, her child may always remain peaceful and innocent like he is appearing right now when he is sleeping in the peaceful night. She is all protective and wishes that her child should be completely innocent with the experience of ‘woe,’ he should not face any suffering. Her child is moaning like a dove in his sleep and that enchants her, as if the child is an angel, may be the Christ himself. Blake began introducing Allusion to Christ in the fourth quatrain. Anaphora has been continued with ‘Sweet smiles’ repeated in the first and third line of 3rd stanza and ‘Sweet moans’ in the first and third line of 4th stanza. The first four stanzas each begin with the word “sweet” which is repeated in the third line, but moves from “Sweet dreams” to “Sweet sleep” to “Sweet smiles” to “Sweet moans.” This suggests a progression from the world of innocence to experience. In the fourth stanza, Blake used Simile suggesting the sighs of the infant are like doves, or moans are beguiling like doves.
Stanza 5 and 6 (Lines 17-24)
“Sleep, sleep, happy child! All creation slept and smiled. Sleep, sleep, happy sleep, While o'er thee thy mother weep. Sweet babe, in thy face Holy image I can trace; Sweet babe, once like thee Thy Maker lay, and wept for me:” As the child sighs and moans, the mother gets worried that he may get awake. Thus she begins to sing for her child to sleep. She says all creation of God has slept, you should also sleep. She says that though you have your own suffering to bear in future, you have to face all of them as it is already destined by the Almighty God for you. However, the mother comforts herself by believing that her baby is fresh from God. He can still see him. Just as she smiles on her baby, Jesus Christ also smiles at him. This way, she forgets the reason for her weeping. The mother can trace the image of Christ mirrored in her child’s face. She says that once Jesus was also a child and she could see the ‘holy image’ on her infant’s face. The stanza alludes the mother to be Virgin Marry and her infant Christ. However, despite her infant’s angelic face, she weeps because she is very well aware of the fact that her child is fated to grow up, suffer the pains and pangs of his part, and then will die. Though she can do her best to protect her child, and calm herself, the hard reality is that he will have to face what God has destined for him. She further says that even the Christ was also born like her infant, he wept for all of us, but he also saved all of us. Christ also faced the sufferings of crucifixion and execution, but he bore all these sufferings for the welfare of the human race. Stanza 7 and 8 (Lines 25-32) “Wept for me, for thee, for all, When He was an infant small. Thou His image ever see, Heavenly face that smiles on thee! Smiles on thee, on me, on all, Who became an infant small; Infant smiles are His own smiles; Heaven and earth to peace beguiles.” In these lines, the poet moves away from the child while exclaiming the greatness of Christ. In the beginning, the mother was singing her child to sleep. She was enchanted by her infant’s angelic face. Now she compares her child’s sleep, smiles, and suffering of her child with Jesus Christ. She says that just as the child weeps, Jesus Christ also “Wept for me, for thee, for all, When he was an infant small.” He too had a heavenly face like the child. She mentions how earth and heaven are in complete harmony and at peace, thanks to the sufferings of Jesus, who bore it all for us. The theme of the poem changes from motherly care to the human perspective of God and how ‘woe and joy’ the two contraries, are essential parts of life, none can be avoided. So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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