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In 1789, William Blake wrote the famous poem ‘A Cradle Song’ as an integral part of his book ‘Songs of Innocence’. The poem has 32 lines and 8 stanzas and describes a mother who is putting her child to sleep. She wishes that the child sleeps through the night when she is crying - probably as she realises the cruel world her child will grow up in. In her child she envisions Jesus and by the end of the poem it seems that heaven and earth at peace. The key theme around which the poem is centred is the undying love the mother has for her child; in fact the word ‘sweet’ appears ten times throughout the poem. When describing the tiny infant, the mother addresses the child almost as an angel (‘Sweet sleep Angel mild’). The tone is soft and sweet as the mother tries to send her baby to sleep. The mother claims she is ‘dovelike’, the dove being a sumbol of holiness. Throughout the poem, in fact, the mother attempts to link the physical world to heaven.
A Cradle Song 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.
Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Tiberio_di_Tito_-_Prince_Leopoldo_de'_Medici_in_a_Cradle_-_WGA22723.jpg
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