William Blake's Infant Joy: Analysis and Interpretation

William Blake's *Infant Joy*: Analysis and Interpretation

Context

Infant Joy is often interpreted by critics as an imaginary dialogue between a newborn baby and its mother. The baby asserts that its name, and therefore its nature, is joy. The mother wishes that joy will continue to characterize the infant's life.

Many critics view the poem's dialogue as a lullaby a mother is singing to her newborn child, assuming both their voices. The child's words celebrate the baby's present innocence and joy (“I happy am”). Her response, “Sweet joy befall thee,” is both a blessing and a recognition that what may befall the baby will include other, less joyful, experiences.

Some critics also remind us that Blake wrote at a time of very high infant mortality. Many children died a few days after birth, so the mother's wish for future joy may also include her awareness of mortality.

Language and Tone

The effect of this poem is to produce simplicity by the repetition of a few key words – “sweet,” “happy,” “joy” – and words associated with these – “smile” and “sing.” The lines “I happy am, / Joy is my name” succinctly express the unity in a child between its nature and its identity. The baby is joy. When this is followed by the speaker's wish for joy to befall him/her, it suggests that the speaker acknowledges that this joy is not guaranteed. The baby has entered a world in which its nature may come into contradiction with its experience.

Structure and Versification

The poem relies for its effects on the patterning with difference of very few words – “joy” occurs six times in twelve lines, “sweet” four times. Although there are two stanzas, each stanza actually falls into two matching halves. Phrases are repeated: “but two days old,” “I call thee.” This gives the stanza a rocking effect, suggesting a lullaby. The repetition of the closing line acts as a refrain and adds to this song-like quality.

Imagery and Symbolism

Infant – Contemporary attitudes toward children varied:

• Newborn children could be images of innocence, as here and in Cradle Song. The Romantics believed that children came fresh from God and retained their memory of Him. Children, therefore, reflect the creativity and goodness of God. See The world of the Romantics > Making sense of the intangible world > Seventeenth and eighteenth attitudes to childhood
• According to Rousseau (see Social / political background > The spirit of rebellion – politics > Jean-Jacques Rousseau), babies should be seen as naturally good and with an innate capacity to learn and grow, which society's demands crush and distort.
• Other Christians in Blake's day believed that children came into the world contaminated by original sin and needed to be cleansed by baptism and a personal acceptance of salvation. We can read Infant Joy as a rebuttal of this attitude.
• I have no name; / I am … I happy am – Some critics see this as a reference to God. In the Old Testament account of Moses' meeting with God, Exodus 3:13-14, Moses asks God's name and gets the response “I am.” Since Jesus claims this reference for himself in the New Testament, John 8:58, the poem could refer to the birth of Christ, which is associated with joy in the biblical accounts.

• Blake saw the natural child as an image of the creative imagination, which is the human being's spiritual core. He was concerned about the way in which social institutions, such as the school system and parental authority, crushed the capacity for imaginative vision. The child's capacity for joy and play are expressions of this imagination.