William Blake's poem "Infant Sorrow" is an eight-line poem taken from his collection Songs of Experience. The poem is written from the perspective of a baby being born into the world, which is usually (hopefully!) a joyous occasion. Yet as the title implies, Blake focuses on negative emotions. "Infant Sorrow" is a demonstration of the darker side of childbirth, where none of the parties involved - not even the baby - are happy.
The poem is composed of four rhyming couplets divided between two stanzas. The first stanza sees the baby being born:
"My mother groand! my father wept. / Into the dangerous world I leapt. / Helpless, naked, piping loud, / Like a fiend hid in a cloud."
Right from the start, we can tell that the parents are not happy about the birth of their child. We're not sure exactly of the reason, but the second line,...
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referring to the "dangerous world" that the baby now inhabits, gives us a clue. The parents know that the child is being born into a cruel, harsh world and lament that they will be exposed to it.
Take into consideration that this poem is from the child's perspective and not the parents'. Babies are not born with an awareness of themselves (or anything, really), so how can the child know that he is entering a dangerous world? And for that matter, if the baby knows the world is dangerous, it's safe to assume he also knows that his mother's womb is the opposite- comforting and soothing. It's interesting that Blake gives this level of consciousness to a child, and more interesting that the child's perspective seems to match that of its parents.
Also of note is the poem's comparison of the child to a "fiend"- is Blake suggesting that the child is a little devilish? And if so, is that what the parents are upset about?
The second stanza shows us what happens after the birth:
"Struggling in my father's hands: / Striving against my swaddling bands: / Bound and weary I thought best / To sulk upon my mothers breast."
Blake describes the child as rambunctious, not able to sit still while it's father holds it. Again, this supports the "devilish child" idea from the first stanza - the child's been born for only a few minutes and is already a handful. The child does calm down, though, and "sulks" on their mother's breast. The word "sulk" is not only phonetically close to the word "suckle" (meaning to breastfeed), but also implies that the child is somber - another negative emotion for what should be a happy event.