A Cradle Song
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Text: Poetry, by W. B. Yeats (Standard Ebooks, 2024), from the collected editions of 1908 to 1928. Public domain.
In brief
SummaryA parent sings over a sleeping child, already sad to see it grow.
A parent sings over a child's bed. Angels bend over the cradle, glad of a rest from escorting "the whimpering dead". God laughs in heaven to see the child so good, and the stars share his mood. Then the song turns to the singer, who sighs while kissing the child, admitting that the baby will one day grow up and be missed. The poem is a lullaby with a small ache at its end.
Lines to remember
The angels are stooping
That I shall miss you
When you have grown.
Line by line
Lines 1 to 4Angels at the cradle
"The angels are stooping / Above your bed", tired of "trooping / With the whimpering dead". The sleeping child is a relief to them after the sad work of guiding souls, and the odd, slightly dark detail keeps the lullaby from being merely sweet.
Lines 5 to 8Heaven's delight
"God's laughing in heaven / To see you so good", and "The Sailing Seven", stars or planets moving across the sky, "Are gay with His mood". The whole of heaven takes pleasure in one small sleeping child.
Lines 9 to 12The singer's sigh
The last stanza comes down to earth: "I sigh that kiss you". The singer must "own", or admit, a selfish sadness: "I shall miss you / When you have grown". Love for the baby already contains the loss of the baby.
Themes
Parental love
The poem's feeling gathers in the final stanza, where the singer admits "I shall miss you / When you have grown". Every child who grows up is in a sense lost as a baby, and the lullaby holds that knowledge alongside its tenderness.
Innocence and heaven
The child's goodness delights the whole of heaven: angels stoop over it, God laughs, the "Sailing Seven" are glad. The contrast with "the whimpering dead" makes the sleeping child an image of pure, fresh life.
Context
The poem first appeared in The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics (1892), among the lyrics Yeats later grouped as "The Rose". He revised it considerably: the text of 1895 differs in several lines from the one printed in the collected editions from 1925, given here.
Form
Three quatrains of very short lines, two beats each, rhymed ABAB, with feminine rhymes on the first and third lines ("stooping" and "trooping", "kiss you" and "miss you"). The rocking, falling rhythm suits a song sung over a cradle.
Revised; the 1895 text (Gutenberg 38877) and the 1925-1933 text (Standard Ebooks) differ in several lines (about 70 per cent word overlap).
