CAMELOT FANTASIES

Cradle Song




by William Blake




 Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
 Dreaming in the joys of night;
 Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep
 Little sorrows sit and weep.

 Sweet babe, in thy face
 Soft desires I can trace,
 Secret joys and secret smiles,
 Little pretty infant wiles.

 As thy softest limbs I feel
 Smiles as of the morning steal
 O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast
 Where thy little heart doth rest.

 O the cunning wiles that creep
 In thy little heart asleep!
 When thy little heart doth wake,
 Then the dreadful night shall break.

 Auden's "Lullaby" was written from one adult to another. Blake's "Cradle Song" is a lullaby written by an adult to a sleeping baby. Blake was married but never had children, as far as we know, yet his love and compassion for the nameless sleeping baby are wonderfully evident in this very moving poem.