Infant Joy
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| Infant Joy | |
|---|---|
| by William Blake | |
![](#/media/File:William_Blake_-_Songs_of_Innocence_and_of_Experience,_Plate_28,_"Infant_Joy"_(Bentley_25)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) 1789 edition | |
| Full text | |
 Infant Joy at Wikisource |
"Infant Joy" is a poem written by the English poet William Blake. It was first published as part of his collection Songs of Innocence in 1789 and is the counterpart to "Infant Sorrow", which was published at a later date in Songs of Experience in 1794.
Ralph Vaughan Williams set the poem to music in his 1958 song cycle Ten Blake Songs.
I have no name
I am but two days old.—
What shall I call thee?
I happy am,
Joy is my name,—
Sweet joy befall thee!
Pretty joy!
Sweet joy but two days old,
Sweet joy I call thee;
Thou dost smile.
I sing the while
Sweet joy befall thee.[1]
Description
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".
The two stanzas and their contrasting speakers, use repetition with variation link many of the other 'Songs of Innocence' poems, demonstrating what critic Heather Glen called the "difference yet harmony between the two speakers."[2]
