A Cradle Song Style Analysis
The poem “A Cradle Song” by William Blake, is about a mother’s lullaby to her child and how mother is happy when she is next to her child. The mother wants to stop her child from growing up because she afraid her child will lose innocence and won’t be happy any more. Also in the poem reader can see that mother always wants the for her child. So the poem is about a mother’s happiness about her child. William Blake uses metaphors and poem’s tone of happiness created by repetition to emphasize the idea of a mother’s joy with her child.
The metaphors that William Blake uses throughout his poem really connects to his theme of mother’s joy with her child. As he says, “Hover over my delight.”, the poet refers to mother’s newborn child when he was saying “delight” because her child is as sweet as delight to a mother and a joy to a mother. The mother says “Heavenly face that smiles on thee,/ Smiles on thee on me on all” In this sentence, speaker uses “heavenly face” metaphor as newborn’s smile. The mother thinks a holy smile is on her child and on her and she feels happy for herself and her baby. So the speaker or the mother used metaphors to show how much she cares about her child and how happy she is next to her child in the poem
William Blake used a tone of satisfaction by repeating some words in his poem to tell that the mother is happy about her child. In mother’s lullaby, she repeats word “sweet” eleven times and word “sleep” seven times to wish her child a good happy dream. Also these repetitions in mother lullaby creates a slow and relaxed atmosphere both for mother’s baby and reader to show how much speaker love her child and care about his /her. Also word “happy” used four times in lullaby to create a joyful tone. Mother wishes her child to be happy which indirectly make the mother happy too. So William Blake used repetition to create the happy tone and to show mother’s happiness by her baby’s happiness.
To conclude, William Blake used metaphors and repetition to provide the theme of happiness of a mother’s joy when she is with her baby and when her baby is happy. Speaker’s repetitions and metaphors about her baby’s smile and “delight” shows how innocent, naive, happy and lifefull her baby is. With William Blake style of using repetition and metaphors readers can understand deeper and intenser meaning of a mother’s happiness.
A Cradle Song - Poem by William Blake
Sweet dreams form a shade,
O'er my lovely infants 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.
Sweet smiles in the night,
Hover over my delight.
Sweet smiles Mothers 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.
Sleep sleep happy child,
All creation slept and smil'd.
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
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 & earth to peace beguiles.
Blake, William. “A Cradle Song.” Poem Hunter. PoemHunter.com, n.d.Web. 7 May 2015
The poem “A Cradle Song” by William Blake, is about a mother’s lullaby to her child and how mother is happy when she is next to her child. The mother wants to stop her child from growing up because she afraid her child will lose innocence and won’t be happy any more. Also in the poem reader can see that mother always wants the for her child. So the poem is about a mother’s happiness about her child. William Blake uses metaphors and poem’s tone of happiness created by repetition to emphasize the idea of a mother’s joy with her child.
The metaphors that William Blake uses throughout his poem really connects to his theme of mother’s joy with her child. As he says, “Hover over my delight.”, the poet refers to mother’s newborn child when he was saying “delight” because her child is as sweet as delight to a mother and a joy to a mother. The mother says “Heavenly face that smiles on thee,/ Smiles on thee on me on all” In this sentence, speaker uses “heavenly face” metaphor as newborn’s smile. The mother thinks a holy smile is on her child and on her and she feels happy for herself and her baby. So the speaker or the mother used metaphors to show how much she cares about her child and how happy she is next to her child in the poem
William Blake used a tone of satisfaction by repeating some words in his poem to tell that the mother is happy about her child. In mother’s lullaby, she repeats word “sweet” eleven times and word “sleep” seven times to wish her child a good happy dream. Also these repetitions in mother lullaby creates a slow and relaxed atmosphere both for mother’s baby and reader to show how much speaker love her child and care about his /her. Also word “happy” used four times in lullaby to create a joyful tone. Mother wishes her child to be happy which indirectly make the mother happy too. So William Blake used repetition to create the happy tone and to show mother’s happiness by her baby’s happiness.
To conclude, William Blake used metaphors and repetition to provide the theme of happiness of a mother’s joy when she is with her baby and when her baby is happy. Speaker’s repetitions and metaphors about her baby’s smile and “delight” shows how innocent, naive, happy and lifefull her baby is. With William Blake style of using repetition and metaphors readers can understand deeper and intenser meaning of a mother’s happiness.
A Cradle Song - Poem by William Blake
Sweet dreams form a shade,
O'er my lovely infants 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.
Sweet smiles in the night,
Hover over my delight.
Sweet smiles Mothers 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.
Sleep sleep happy child,
All creation slept and smil'd.
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
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 & earth to peace beguiles.
Blake, William. “A Cradle Song.” Poem Hunter. PoemHunter.com, n.d.Web. 7 May 2015