Infant Sorrow

For the fictional band, see Russell Brand#Music. This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2012) This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (June 2012) Infant Sorrow is a poem by William Blake from Songs of Experience. Background edit: This poem belongs to the "Songs of Experience" by William Blake. It is the counter poem of "Infant Joy". The poem suggests that childbirth is not always joyful and happy but can bring sorrow and pain. The response of the child itself may be different from that of the child in "Infant Joy" because of the behavior of the parents. In this poem the parents seem depressed by this unwanted birth, and this may be reflecting on the child itself. This poem could be considered as a work of societal allusion. It is well known that William Blake was strongly opposed to the industrial revolution; similarly, he was opposed to the mistreatment of children by rich factory owners. When the infant is being brought helpless and naked to the "dangerous world", this world could refer to the industrial revolution. Blake utilizes this as a symbol of temporary security. While the child is young, he/she will be nurtured and protected by their parents. But once the child matures, they will find a life devoid of any joy or pleasure, such as working in the factories with no security. The child decides to "sulk" upon the breast of the mother's child, almost in a manner that allows the child to enjoy what little comfort it has left. This poem is powerful in the sense that it outlines the sometimes desperate, sorrowful situation facing children as they grow. Poem edit: Infant Sorrow "My mother groan'd! my father wept., Into the dangerous world I leapt., Helpless, naked, piping loud;, Like a fiend hid in a cloud. Struggling in my father's hands, Striving against my swaddling bands;, Bound and weary I thought best, To sulk upon my mother's breast." One thing that generally goes unnoticed in this poem is the use of the past tense to describe this birth. The speaker is no longer a baby: he has had some experience of the dangerous world and he turns back to see the dreadful moment when - like a fiend, not like an angel - he came to life. The verb "leapt" suggests his exhausted mother's last push after a painful labour, with no tender arms to take and cuddle this creature. The baby found itself half stifled with the poor bandage wrapped around its tiny body and its father's hands to hold him tight. He tried to free himself, as hard as he could, but his attempt was vain and in the end he could only surrender and \"sulk upon ... mother\'s breast\". The struggle is symbolical of any attempt of contrasting tyrannical oppressive power (the father, the institutions, the church itself...) and the final moment of surrender is the negative acceptance of one's destiny. v, t, e, William Blake Literary works Early writings Poetical Sketches, An Island in the Moon, All Religions are One, There is No Natural Religion, Songs of Innocence, and of Experience Songs of Innocence Introduction, The Shepherd, The Ecchoing Green, The Lamb, The Little Black Boy, The Blossom, The Chimney Sweeper, The Little Boy lost, The Little Boy Found, Laughing Song, A Cradle Song, The Divine Image, Holy Thursday, Night, Spring, Nurse's Song, Infant Joy, A Dream, On Another's Sorrow, Songs of Experience Introduction, Earth's Answer, The Clod and the Pebble, Holy Thursday, The Little Girl Lost, The Little Girl Found, The Chimney Sweeper, Nurse's Song, The Sick Rose, The Fly, The Angel, The Tyger, My Pretty Rose Tree, Ah! Sun-flower, The Lily, The Garden of Love, The Little Vagabond, London, The Human Abstract, Infant Sorrow, A Poison Tree, A Little Boy lost, A Little Girl Lost, To Tirzah, The School Boy, The Voice of the Ancient Bard, Prophetic, Books The continental, prophecies America a Prophecy, Europe a Prophecy, The Song of Los, Other Tiriel, The Book of Thel, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The French Revolution, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, The Book of Urizen, The Book of Ahania, The Book of Los, The Four Zoas, Milton a Poem, Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion, The Pickering, Manuscript Auguries of Innocence, The Mental Traveller, The Crystal Cabinet, Mythology Ahania, Albion, Bromion, Enion, Enitharmon, Fuzon, Grodna, Har, Leutha, Los, Luvah, Orc, Spectre, Tharmas, Thiriel, Tiriel, Urizen, Urthona, Utha, Vala, Art Paintings and prints Relief etching, Engravings for Original Stories from Real Life, The Ancient of Days, The Night of Enitharmon's Joy, Newton, Nebuchadnezzar, Illustrations for Night Thoughts, The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne, Illustrations of Paradise Lost, A Vision of the Last Judgment, Descriptive Catalogue, The Great Red Dragon Paintings, Pity, The Ghost of a Flea, Illustrations of On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides, Illustrations of the Book of Job, Illustrations of The Divine Comedy, The Ancients Samuel Palmer, Edward Calvert, Frederick Tatham, George Richmond, John Linnell, Criticism and scholarship Scholars and critics Peter Ackroyd, Donald Ault, Harold Bloom, Nancy Bogen, S. Foster Damon, David V. Erdman, Northrop Frye, Alexander Gilchrist, Geoffrey Keynes, Alicia Ostriker, Kathleen Raine, E. P. Thompson, Scholarly works Life of William Blake, Fearful Symmetry, A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake, Blake: Prophet Against Empire, Witness Against the Beast, Archives and Collections William Blake Archive, Wikimedia Blake at Wiktionary, Blake at Wikibooks, Blake at Wikiquote, Blake at Wikisource, Blake at Commons

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