Infant Sorrow
Infant Sorrow - meaning Summary
Birth as Confined Experience
Blake presents birth from the newborn's viewpoint as a fearful, constrained arrival rather than a celebratory event. The infant narrates parental distress and its own physical struggle, portraying life as a hazardous, limiting condition. Lines stress helplessness, resistance to swaddling, and retreat to the mother’s breast, suggesting early confrontation with suffering and social bonds. The poem sits in Songs of Innocence and of Experience, exploring innocence shaded by painful reality.
Read Complete AnalysesMy mother groaned, 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.
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