"Infant Joy" is a poem written by the English poet
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
. It was first published as part of his collection ''
Songs of Innocence
''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and Illuminated manuscript, illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later, he b ...
'' in 1789 and is the counterpart to "
Infant Sorrow", which was published at a later date in ''
Songs of Experience
''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later, he bound these poems with a ...
'' in 1794.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...
set the poem to music in his 1958
song cycle
A song cycle (german: Liederkreis or Liederzyklus) is a group, or cycle (music), cycle, of individually complete Art song, songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a unit.Susan Youens, ''Grove online''
The songs are either for solo voice ...
''
Ten Blake Songs
''Ten Blake Songs'' is a song cycle for tenor or soprano voice and oboe composed over the Christmas period of 1957 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (18721958), for the 1958 film ''The Vision of William Blake'' by Guy Brenton for Morse Films. The firs ...
''.
The poem
Description
Both "Infant Joy" and "Infant Sorrow" use two stanzas; however, "Infant Sorrow" uses a regular AABB rhyme scheme for both stanzas; whereas, ‘Infant Joy’ uses ABCDAC for the first stanza, and ABCDDC for the second. The most marked pattern in ‘Infant Joy’ is the double rhyme repeated in lines three, six, nine, and twelve, this pattern contrasts with the more insistent rhymes found in "Infant Sorrow".
The two stanzas and their contrasting speakers, use repetition with variation link many of the other 'Songs of Innocence' poems, demonstrating what critic Heather Glen called the "difference yet harmony between the two speakers."
[Glen 25-26]
Analysis
Critic Jennifer Waller describes the accompanying illustration adding meaning to the poem, saying "a twining vine bearing flamboyant flowers, suggesting passion and sexuality
the lower leaves of the plant are angular and strained and suggest a hint of impending experience." Thus, for Waller "origins of the scene" lie in "the simplicity of domestic love through the expressions of frank sexuality".
Autonomy and selfhood center the relationship of the poem's two speakers, taking up Blake's common thematic emphasis on the nature of the "self". Critic Heather Glen describes the second stanza as showing a very real experience in which a "child's sense of autonomous selfhood appears within a relationship of mutual joy."
[Glen 131-132.] Glen compares the autonomy the mother fosters in "Infant Joy" with that created by the Nurse in "
Nurse's Song
''Nurse's Song'' is the name of two related poems by William Blake, published in ''Songs of Innocence
''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copi ...
", where care and love for the child must be relinquished because the "child will eventually go its own separate way".
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References
Works cited
*
External links
A comparison of extant copies of Blake's hand painted illustrations of "Infant Joy"
at the William Blake Archive
The William Blake Archive is a digital humanities project started in 1994, a first version of the website was launched in 1996.{{cite journal, last1=Crawford, first1=Kendal, last2=Levy, first2=Michelle, journal=RIDE: A Review Journal for Digital E ...
"Infant Joy"
at Google Art Project
Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world.
It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...
{{Portal bar, Children's literature, England, Language, Poetry, border=yes
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
1789 poems