William Blake’s “Infant Joy” and “Infant Sorrow” poems are about right after of the birth. They show the growth in relationship between a child and his/her parents from different perspectives. Blake presents the reader with two aspects of the birth of life. Main theme of “Infant Joy” and “Infant Sorrow” is individualism. “Infant Joy” represents the celebration and joy felt at the arrival of an innocent baby, while “Infant Sorrow” is a poem of the dejection and rejection at the birth of unwanted child. The former poem leaves the reader with the feeling of joy, warmth and innocence; the latter offers despair and dark existence that will continue a lifetime. Blake presents reader with two aspects of the birth; one is blissfully and another is affliction both for baby and family. “Infant Joy” represents the happiness and love. The scene is one of serenity. Both parents and baby are very happy. The mother addresses her baby only thoughts of tenderness. Her baby embracing his new life, family and surroundings, notifying to the world his arrival only two days before; “I have no name, I am but two days old” The tone of the poem is mingled with bliss and enthusiasm and this affects its narrative viewpoint; the poem is a reported dialogue between the baby and an adult. This can be seen in the first stanza of the poem: “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!” As it can be seen in the example the language used in “Infant Joy” is cheery. The word “joy” and the phrases “sweet joy”, and “pretty joy” are repeated throughout the poem. In contrast to “Infant Joy”, “Infant Sorrow” is the dark scene of an unwanted baby. The poem gives the feeling as if the baby is born in an insensitive and dark world. The baby is like an angry speaker. The tone of him represents the feeling of hopelessness grief. “My mother groaned, my father wept— Into the dangerous world I leapt, Helpless, naked, piping loud, Like a fiend hid in a cloud” The baby describes his own birth as a traumatic experience, using the words such as “dangerous, helpless, naked, loud, struggling, bound, weary, and sulky”. These words conjure the bleak existence of his parent’s insensitive attitude towards him. The baby was pushed from his mother’s womb and finds cold welcome in his father’s hands. In conclusion, I decided to examine “Infant Joy” and “Infant Sorrow” in detail because I think what William Blake did by presenting reader with two aspects of the birth is very interesting. There are some events like births, weddings, graduations, etc. that are generally thought of happiest moments in life. It is really hard to think otherwise because everyone is expected to feel according to what their particular culture thought them. For example, everybody should feel nothing but happiness when a new baby comes to this world as if there is nothing to worry about. At his point, what Blake did is very different and brave because it has always been hard to break the traditional conceptions of society. However, his motive is not very likely pushing the society’s limits for fun but to see the world as it is, always having more than one perspective. Giving birth as an example is really an extreme case because as I mentioned before, having a baby is generally accepted as one of the happiest moments in life almost a miracle. That’s why, to come up with an idea as “Infant Sorrow” is very extraordinary. That’s the reason I really liked the idea of having different points of view in every aspect of life, even it is birth.
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