Infant Joy

Infant Joy

''Infant Joy'' was published in 1789 in 'Songs of Innocence' and is the counterpart to "Infant Sorrow" which was published at a later date in 'Songs of Experience' in 1794.

Probably the most famous poems in these two books are 'The Tyger in 'Songs of Experience' and its counterpart 'The Lamb' in 'Songs of Innocence'. 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, and gives the poem a more tentative quality. It could be argued that this tentative air suggests the idea that although the speaker wishes the child a joyful life, he or she knows that this is unlikely to happen. This would suggest that the adult’s naming of the child is a tentative wish, rather than manipulation.

Read more about Infant Joy:  Poem

Famous quotes containing the words infant and/or joy:

    According to the historian, they escaped as by a miracle all roving bands of Indians, and reached their homes in safety, with their trophies, for which the General Court paid them fifty pounds. The family of Hannah Dustan all assembled alive once more, except the infant whose brains were dashed out against the apple tree, and there have been many who in later time have lived to say that they have eaten of the fruit of that apple tree.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    ... But all the feelings that evoke in us the joy or the misfortune of a real person are only produced in us through the intermediary of an image of that joy or that misfortune; the ingeniousness of the first novelist was in understanding that, in the apparatus of our emotions, since the image is the only essential element, the simplification which consists of purely and simply suppressing the factual characters is a definitive improvement.
    Marcel Proust (1871–1922)