2. 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.
3. 1. I have no name
- By having read the name of this poem: «Infant
Joy», the no. 1 line in the poem makes me think
of a baby who still haven´t gotten a name. The
baby is talking.
4. 2. I am but two days old.-
- I think that this baby is only two
days old, and is telling someone about it.
5. 3. What shall I call thee?
- This poem may be like a conversation
where the baby tells about him- or
herself, and I think the mother asks what
the baby´s name is.
6. 4. I happy am
- To me this means that the baby is
happy
7. 5. Joy is my name.-
- Here the baby names him- or
herself Joy.
8. 6. Sweet joy befall thee!
- In this sentence the mother wishes
that Joy may expereience joy.
9. 7. Pretty joy!
- The mother is talking to the
baby, calling him or her pretty. But it also
may be just about the feeling of joy as the
word does not start with a capital letter.
10. 8. Sweet joy but two days old.
- Joy, the baby, is sweet and only two
days old.
11. 9. Sweet joy I call thee;
- The mother calls the baby Joy. I
think this means that the mother
approves of the baby´s name, although I
don´t know why the word «joy» isn´t
written with a capital letter.
12. 10. Thou dost smile,
- This may mean that the baby
smiles alot. I think the word «dost»
is a little difficult, but I think it
means «does».
13. 11. I sing the while
- I think this means that the mother
sings the next line beacause Joy is
smiling alot.
14. 12. Sweet joy befall thee.
- This may be a good wish from the
mother to the baby.
15. This poem is usually interpreted in two ways:
The first one is basically the imaginary conversion between
the mother and her unborn child. It’s been just two days
since the child is conceived in the mother’s womb. The child
has no worldly name and associates his name to Joy. If we’re
to accept this viewpoint, Blake’s inference may be to make
his readers realize that the life of children is happy before
and after birth.
The other interpretation is that the child has actually been
born, and that this poem is a conversation between the
mother and the child.
Analysis
16. The theme of this poem is joy. The joy every mother feels when she
has conceived (or given birth)to a child.
The feeling every mother hold at the eve of child birth or just by
seeing the little angel in her lap. Blake repeats the expression,
“Sweet Joy befall thee!” to intensify the mother’s care and love for
the child.
The development of this poem is clearly the mothers´ imaginary
conversation. In this world human beings mostly are born into joy.
The infant stage of life is joyful, filled with a mothers love for her
child.
