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Poet: W. H. Auden
Poem: Lullaby
Poem of the Day on:
May 31 2004
Comment 4 of 4, added on November 4th, 2009 at 4:12 AM.
auden
“LAY YOUR SLEEPING HEAD, MY LOVE”
- Written January 1937
- 4 stanzas
- Melancholic undertones
- First person, creates intimate feeling, addressing ‘my love’
- Love poem
- STANZA 1
- ‘human on my faithless arm’, human suggests flaws, not perfect- doesn’t sound like a criticism due to the gentle tone
- Faithless implies lack of commitment and trust, not faithful
- Grounded appraisal of persona and lover, despite lullaby tone
- Ephemeral= transient, passing
- ‘time’ impacts us all, even the ‘thoughtful children’-changing their beauty
- ‘Ephemeral’- life goes on, will pass, time’s passage can’t be altered
- ‘But’- flies in the face off what we believe about time
- Suggesting that nothing can/should take this moment
- ‘lie’ –double meaning, sits with ‘mortal, guilty’, creating an image matching that of the persona in line 2
- Nonetheless “the entirely beautiful”- beautiful is used as a noun, rather than adjective, making the sentence not entire, also makes reference to Yeats poem
- STANZA 2- syntax is deliberately convoluted,
- Draws parallels between ‘agape’ and ‘eros’
- “Soul and body have no bounds”- means that we are at one with our bodies,
- -in the act of love, the goddess of love (VENUS) sends a ‘grave’ vision, because their love renders them spiritually open
- The vision is not simple- it is serious/grave (of Godly “sympathy, universal love and hope”)
- ‘grave’ also implies the spectre of death, which time ensures will claim us all eventually- could also have sexual overtones as an orgasm is sometimes called ‘the little death’
- In reverse, the hermit has an ‘abstract insight’, that leads to ‘sensual ecstasy’ and a strong physical and emotional response, refers to ‘glaciers’ and ‘rocks’ because hermits’ often live in high mountain caves
- STANZA 3
- Image of certainty and fidelity, as ephemeral, simile- ‘pass like vibrations of a bell’
- ‘Fashionable madmen’= conservative voices of protest, with the ‘pedantic, boring cry’- implies drones on from generation to generation
- ‘But’ halfway through the line, clear juxtaposition with the forces that will see it (the moment) destroyed, ‘from this night not...not...not a kiss nor look be lost’- repetition of the ‘not’ creates a sense of a list of intimacies to be appreciated in the moment
- STANZA 4 – when ‘the moment’ passes, “this night”
- All that is good, passes with time ‘dies’
- Last stanza reads like a prayer, gentle plea ‘let the winds...’
- That the natural elements may show ‘eye and knocking heart’, sufficient ‘sweetness’ that he may ‘find the mortal word enough’ i.e. that he will want to go on living/into the world
- ‘noons of dryness’ =periods of drought and hunger- hard times
- ‘involuntary powers’, perhaps the ‘supernatural forces’ again
- ‘nights of insult’- human evil ‘let you pass’
- ‘watched by every human love’- replaces personal love with universal human love, without me experience universal love- contrasts first line, eros to agape in the face of all the difficulty that we/lives can cause
yoyo from Australia
Comment 3 of 4, added on January 21st, 2008 at 2:06 AM.
please, please, please, remember that auden was GAY. he is writing this poem to a man. this changes the analysis significantly, as the "pedantic, boring cry" could be both in contrast to the "faithless" love, or a part of it.
kt from United States
Comment 2 of 4, added on August 14th, 2005 at 6:28 PM.
This poem 'Lullaby' in a way gives a loving and passionate meaning, but at the same time, to really look at it, it pulls apart the love and distorts the love of the world. It really has a deep meaning.
Jayne from Australia
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“LAY YOUR SLEEPING HEAD, MY LOVE”
- Written January 1937
- 4 stanzas
- Melancholic undertones
- First person, creates intimate feeling, addressing ‘my love’
- Love poem
- STANZA 1
- ‘human on my faithless arm’, human suggests flaws, not perfect- doesn’t sound like a criticism due to the gentle tone
- Faithless implies lack of commitment and trust, not faithful
- Grounded appraisal of persona and lover, despite lullaby tone
- Ephemeral= transient, passing
- ‘time’ impacts us all, even the ‘thoughtful children’-changing their beauty
- ‘Ephemeral’- life goes on, will pass, time’s passage can’t be altered
- ‘But’- flies in the face off what we believe about time
- Suggesting that nothing can/should take this moment
- ‘lie’ –double meaning, sits with ‘mortal, guilty’, creating an image matching that of the persona in line 2
- Nonetheless “the entirely beautiful”- beautiful is used as a noun, rather than adjective, making the sentence not entire, also makes reference to Yeats poem
- STANZA 2- syntax is deliberately convoluted,
- Draws parallels between ‘agape’ and ‘eros’
- “Soul and body have no bounds”- means that we are at one with our bodies,
- -in the act of love, the goddess of love (VENUS) sends a ‘grave’ vision, because their love renders them spiritually open
- The vision is not simple- it is serious/grave (of Godly “sympathy, universal love and hope”)
- ‘grave’ also implies the spectre of death, which time ensures will claim us all eventually- could also have sexual overtones as an orgasm is sometimes called ‘the little death’
- In reverse, the hermit has an ‘abstract insight’, that leads to ‘sensual ecstasy’ and a strong physical and emotional response, refers to ‘glaciers’ and ‘rocks’ because hermits’ often live in high mountain caves
- STANZA 3
- Image of certainty and fidelity, as ephemeral, simile- ‘pass like vibrations of a bell’
- ‘Fashionable madmen’= conservative voices of protest, with the ‘pedantic, boring cry’- implies drones on from generation to generation
- ‘But’ halfway through the line, clear juxtaposition with the forces that will see it (the moment) destroyed, ‘from this night not...not...not a kiss nor look be lost’- repetition of the ‘not’ creates a sense of a list of intimacies to be appreciated in the moment
- STANZA 4 – when ‘the moment’ passes, “this night”
- All that is good, passes with time ‘dies’
- Last stanza reads like a prayer, gentle plea ‘let the winds...’
- That the natural elements may show ‘eye and knocking heart’, sufficient ‘sweetness’ that he may ‘find the mortal word enough’ i.e. that he will want to go on living/into the world
- ‘noons of dryness’ =periods of drought and hunger- hard times
- ‘involuntary powers’, perhaps the ‘supernatural forces’ again
- ‘nights of insult’- human evil ‘let you pass’
- ‘watched by every human love’- replaces personal love with universal human love, without me experience universal love- contrasts first line, eros to agape in the face of all the difficulty that we/lives can cause
yoyo from Australia