Infant joy "I have no name; A I am but two days old." B What shall I call thee?

C "I happy am, D Joy is my name." A Sweet joy befall thee! C Pretty joy! A Sweet joy, but two days old. B Sweet Joy I call thee: C Thou dost smile, D I sing the while; D Sweet joy befall thee! C

Infant sorrow My mother groaned! my father wept. A Into the dangerous world I leapt. A Helpless, naked, piping loud; B Like a fiend hid in a cloud. B Struggling in my father's hands, A Striving against my swaddling bands; A Bound and weary I thought best B To sulk upon my mothers breast

Mia madre gemette! Mio padre pianse, nel periglioso mondo balzai, impotente, nudo, lamentandomi forte, come un fantasma nascosto in una nube. Lottando nelle mani di mio padre, agitandomi contro le bende che dovevano avvolgermi, legato e stanco, ritenni la cosa migliore il ripiegarmi sul petto di mia madre. Essentially, the poem is about the helplessness of mankind in the dangerous world that it has created. We are brought into this world vulnerable and without choice helpless, naked and we continue to live with the same mentality throughout our lives: striving against my swaddling bands. Eventually we give up and surrender into a negative acceptance of our fate; allowing ourselves to be governed by others Bound and weary I thought best to sulk upon my mothers breast. However, it could be argued that Blake is saying we have a choice whether or not to live our lives like this through using the word I\" (\"I thought best .. The line like a fiend hid in a cloud may suggest that although innocent when brought

into the world we are quickly corrupted and by the time we grow up and the fog clears the fiend is revealed beneath.
Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow both express a childs emotions, but his viewpoints are dialectically opposed. While in the first song there are only positive connotations (in fact the baby is happy and conveys joy to the viewer) in the second there are only negative connotations. And while Infant Joy is told between the child and his mother, Infant Sorrow is told only by the child .

Language and tone

The language of the first stanza contrasts with that of the second. The first stanza emphasises the littleness and vulnerability of the baby - helpless, naked, piping - and the threatening nature of the world into which it is born dangerous. The latter is emphasised by the negative reactions of the parents groand, wept. The notion of a fiend in a cloud seems incongruous at this point. However, the active verb I leapt, rather than the usual passive form of I was born, indicates that a fully formed and independent individual has arrived. The second stanza conveys the babys desire to be free and to fight constraint. This is surprising, considering the previous picture of vulnerability. Its response to its situation is forceful rather than submissive. However, our expectations are once more contradicted. Rather than continue fighting, the baby settles into resentment by sulking, as though nurturing plans for future rebellion. This seems the antithesis of the nurture it should be receiving from its mother. It gives substance to the idea of a fiend in a cloud. The infants aggressive tone is enhanced by the emphatic alliteration of Struggling and Striving, whilst the frequent sibilance in the second stanza suggests the association of snake / evil / fiend. Investigating language and tone Think about your response to the baby at the end of the first stanza o What are your expectations? o What is the effect of their being contradicted by the second stanza? What is your final response to the baby?

Structure and versification

The regularity of the rhyming couplets is given liveliness by the use of present participles in the second couplet of the first stanza and the opening couplet of stanza two piping. .Struggling.. Striving. The inversion of the normal word order, in the second line of stanza one and the third in stanza two, emphasises the dangerous nature of the world and the feelings of the baby. In stanza two the finite verb (thought) is delayed until the third line. Thus we see the active struggling of the baby before its collapse in sulking. In this way the verse imitates the order of the actions but also emphasises the unexpected conclusion.

Blake's "Infant Sorrow" is one of the bleakest poems in Songs of Experience because it presents a malignant view of childbirth from the point of view of the newborn. It is impossible to envision this child/speaker cuddled in a blue or pink blanket. Unrelieved in its hostility, the poem rises to its peak in line eight with the infinitive "to sulk," a perverse pun on "to suck."

This pun culminates the negative imagery that began in the poem's first line: "My Mother groand! My Father Wept." In the face of its parents' anguish, the infant initially resists, then sinks into sour ...

William Blakes Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow poems are about right after of the birth. They show the growth in relationship between a child and his/her parents from different perspectives. Blake presents the reader with two aspects of the birth of life. Main theme of Infant Joy and Infant Sorrow is individualism. Infant Joy represents the celebration and joy felt at the arrival of an innocent baby, while Infant Sorrow is a poem of the dejection and rejection at the birth of unwanted child. The former poem leaves the reader with the feeling of joy, warmth and innocence; the latter offers despair and dark existence that will continue a lifetime. Blake presents reader with two aspects of the birth; one is blissfully and another is affliction both for baby and family. Infant Joy represents the happiness and love. The scene is one of serenity. Both parents and baby are very happy. The mother addresses her baby only thoughts of tenderness. Her baby embracing his new life, family and surroundings, notifying to the world his arrival only two days before; I have no name, I am but two days old The tone of the poem is mingled with bliss and enthusiasm and this affects its narrative viewpoint; the poem is a reported dialogue between the baby and an adult. This can be seen in the first stanza of the poem: I have no name, I am but two days old. What shall I call thee? I happy am, Joy is my name Sweet joy befall thee! As it can be seen in the example the language used in Infant Joy is cheery. The word joy and the phrases sweet joy, and pretty joy are repeated throughout the poem. In contrast to Infant Joy, Infant Sorrow is the dark scene of an unwanted baby. The poem gives the feeling as if the baby is born in an insensitive and dark world. The baby is like an angry speaker. The tone of him represents the feeling of hopelessness grief. My mother groaned, my father wept Into the dangerous world I leapt, Helpless, naked, piping loud, Like a fiend hid in a cloud The baby describes hi s own birth as a traumatic experience, using the words such as dangerous, helpless, naked, loud, struggling, bound, weary, and sulky NFANT SORROW

Structure: Infant Sorrow is a poem which comes from Blakes Songs of experience; this can be understood by the point of view of the narration, which is that of one who has seen the world and its corruption. It is made up of only two quatrains, and it has a regular rhyme scheme of coupled rhymes.

Paraphrasing: The poet is representing a fight against repression through the experience of an infant bound by a parental embrace, and yet thrown into the world so suddenly. The first lines represent his childbirth and the suffering of both of his parents, expecially the mothers. But as soon as the child is born, he feels lost in the big world around him, like a fiend hid in a cloud, as the poet says; from the poets words (helpless, piping loud) it almost seems like the child isnt happy of his birth, just like he already knows what is waiting for him outside.

In the second quatrain the poet expresses the struggling of the child, expecially through two symbols: the swadling bands and the fathers hands, which symbolize the chains of repression which the infant is subdued to. In the end the protagonist decides to come back home to his mothers breast, which is the safest place to be.

Comparison w/ other poems: In this poem there are two characters who appear also in The Chimney Sweeper, another famous poem

of Blakes: the father and the mother. Their role in these two poems is in the same time the opposite and the same: they both treat their child in a bad way, but the chimney sweepers father is so cruel that he sells him, while the infants one loves him too much and doesnt allow him to be free.

Language: The language, as in most of Blakes poems, is clear and simple, though a couple of uncommon words are used, such as swadling and fiend, whose meaning may be open to debate. The syntax is plain and easy to understand.