poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

This poem addresses both the birth of a child and the tears of joy and sorrow followed by it.

Infant Sorrow is the polar opposite to Infant Joy and the two poems ideas completely conflict, It displays instant negativity from the first stanza with "My mother groand! My father wept". Here Blake is personalising the baby- giving it human thoughts and space to convey his wishes. This perhaps evil, perhaps wise baby is already experienced in the world and his parents only act as a restraint for him to expllore the world. This also coincides with Blake's romantic view of industrialisation. Maybe the parents represent the industrial revolution but the baby wants no part in it. In the last two lines, there is a tone of absolute futility where the baby just accepts his fate or perhaps he is biding his time?