How innocence is portrayed in William Blakes, "A Cradle Song."

A Cradle Song

Sweet dreams, form a shade

O'er my lovely infant's head;

Sweet dreams of pleasant streams

By happy, silent, moony beams.

Sweet sleep, with soft down

Weave thy brows an infant crown.

Sweep sleep, Angel mild,

Hover o'er my happy child.

Sweet smiles, in the night

Hover over my delight;

Sweet smiles, Mother's smiles,

All the livelong night beguiles.

Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,

Chase not slumber from thy eyes.

Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,

All the dovelike moans beguiles.

Sleep, sleep, happy child,

All creation slept and smil'd;

Sleep, sleep, happy sleep,

While o'er thee thy mother weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face

Holy image I can trace.

Sweet babe, once like thee,

Thy maker lay and wept for me,

Wept for me, for thee, for all,

When he was an infant small

Thou his image ever see,

Heavenly face that smiles on thee,

Smiles on thee, on me, on all;

Who became an infant small.

Infant smiles are his own smiles;

Heaven & earth to peace beguiles.

“Songs of Innocence and Experience,” written by William Blake expressed how Blake felt about life in his era. The poems in “Songs of Innocence,” were written in a young child’s perspective. Blake believed that children were born innocent, in his words innocent meant being born with imagination. Imagination was thought to be the key to life, and imagination faded as a child became older and became influenced by the world. The poem, “A Cradle Song,” clearly reflects what Blake was trying to get across in “Songs of Innocence.”  In the first couple stanza’s Blake talks about sleeping and dreaming. Dreaming is a huge part of the imagination and Blake is talking about how the child is happy when he sleeps and how the world is created in dreams when he says, “All creation slept and smil'd; Sleep, sleep, happy sleep.” Blake believes that imagination creates the world around us, and without it the world would not be present. When he talks about how the mom is sad or weeping while the child is asleep, it illustrates that adults do not support the imagination because their minds are infected with reason. They want their child to develop reason in the world because they believe reason is how the world works. While on the other hand Blake believes that reason destroys the connection between humans and nature. Blake portrays that the child has an innocent mind that is going to be destroyed with reason by hinting that the mother is crying. Blake believes that all children are born with imagination and as life goes on adults influence them to think with reason. Blake fears that if the imagination is absent then the world will come to an end because nothing can be created without imagination. He also believes that God does not want us to know everything and that the imagination keeps us from finding out the truth, reason is a sin because we are trying to find a reason for everything. With this poem Blake shows how children are born with innocent minds and how innocence is happiness because reason shines truth on life and children should not have their imagination stripped from them.