Analysis of Infant Sorrow

William Blake 1757 (Soho) – 1827 (London)



My mother groaned, my father wept,
Into the dangerous world I leapt;
Helpless, naked, piping loud,
Like a fiend hid in a cloud.

Struggling in my father's hands,
Striving against my swaddling bands,
Bound and weary, I thought best
To sulk upon my mother's breast.


Scheme AABB CCDD
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 11011101 010100111 1010101 1011001 10001101 1001111 1010111 11011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 263
Words 47
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 4, 4
Lines Amount 8
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 103
Words per stanza (avg) 23
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

14 sec read
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William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter and printmaker. more…

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