"Lullaby" is one of the best-known poems from W. H. Auden's classic collection Another Time (1940). In mixed tones of romance and realism, its speaker addresses a lover who is asleep in their arms after a night of passion. The poem explores both the bliss and limits of love, which it frames as a flawed, fragile, "Human" phenomenon—but also as something that can bring a vision of transcendent "sympathy" and "hope." Set against the backdrop of a society dominated by "fashionable madmen," the poem acknowledges the inevitability of change and destruction, including the inevitable end of the romance itself. Still, the speaker hopes to salvage the memory of this beautiful night and hopes their love will help the lover accept the painful, "mortal world" as well.

• Read the full text of “Lullaby”

• “Lullaby” Summary

• “Lullaby” Themes

  • 

    The Joys and Limits of Love

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-40
  • 

    Time, Change, and Mortality

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-10
    • Lines 21-36
  • 

    Social Unrest, Anxiety, and Peace

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2
    • Lines 7-8
    • Lines 21-30
    • Lines 31-40

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Lullaby”

  • Lines 1-6

    Lay your sleeping ...
    ... the child ephemeral:

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-10

    But in my ...
    ... The entirely beautiful.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-15

    Soul and body ...
    ... vision Venus sends

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-20

    Of supernatural sympathy, ...
    ... hermit's carnal ecstasy.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 21-25

    Certainty, fidelity ...
    ... pedantic boring cry:

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 26-30

    Every farthing of ...
    ... look be lost.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 31-36

    Beauty, midnight, vision ...
    ... mortal world enough;

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 37-40

    Noons of dryness ...
    ... every human love.

    

    

    

    

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• “Lullaby” Symbols

  • 

    The Glaciers and the Rocks

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 18-20: “While an abstract insight wakes / Among the glaciers and the rocks / The hermit's carnal ecstasy.”

• “Lullaby” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “your,” “head,” “love”
    • Line 2: “Human”
    • Line 4: “beauty”
    • Line 7: “day”
    • Line 8: “Let the”
    • Line 9: “Mortal”
    • Line 10: “beautiful”
    • Line 12: “lovers”
    • Line 15: “vision”
    • Line 17: “love”
    • Line 22: “midnight”
    • Line 28: “night”
    • Line 29: “Not a,” “not a”
    • Line 30: “Not a”
    • Line 31: “Beauty,” “midnight,” “vision”
    • Line 32: “Let the”
    • Line 33: “head”
    • Line 34: “day”
    • Line 36: “mortal”
    • Line 37: “of,” “you”
    • Line 38: “By”
    • Line 39: “Nights,” “of,” “you”
    • Line 40: “by,” “human,” “love”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-5: “Time and fevers burn away / Individual beauty from / Thoughtful children,”
    • Lines 12-13: “To lovers as they lie upon / Her tolerant enchanted slope”
    • Lines 21-23: “Certainty, fidelity / On the stroke of midnight pass / Like vibrations of a bell,”
    • Lines 26-28: “Every farthing of the cost, / All the dreaded cards foretell, / Shall be paid,”
    • Lines 37-38: “Noons of dryness find you fed / By the involuntary powers,”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-10
    • Lines 11-20
    • Lines 21-30

  • End-Stopped Line

    

    

    

    

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    Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “Lay your sleeping head, my love, / Human on my faithless arm;”
    • Line 6: “Proves the child ephemeral:”
    • Line 8: “Let the living creature lie,”
    • Line 10: “The entirely beautiful.”
    • Line 11: “Soul and body have no bounds:”
    • Line 14: “In their ordinary swoon,”
    • Lines 16-17: “Of supernatural sympathy, / Universal love and hope;”
    • Line 20: “The hermit's carnal ecstasy.”
    • Line 23: “Like vibrations of a bell,”
    • Line 25: “Their pedantic boring cry:”
    • Lines 26-27: “Every farthing of the cost, / All the dreaded cards foretell,”
    • Lines 29-30: “Not a whisper, not a thought, / Not a kiss nor look be lost.”
    • Line 31: “Beauty, midnight, vision dies:”
    • Lines 35-36: “Eye and knocking heart may bless, / Find the mortal world enough;”
    • Line 38: “By the involuntary powers,”
    • Line 40: “Watched by every human love.”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “Lay,” “head,” “love”
    • Line 2: “Human,” “faithless”
    • Line 3: “fevers,” “burn”
    • Line 4: “beauty,” “from”
    • Line 7: “But,” “break”
    • Line 8: “Let,” “living,” “lie”
    • Line 9: “Mortal,” “me”
    • Line 11: “body,” “bounds”
    • Line 12: “lovers,” “lie”
    • Line 15: “vision Venus,” “sends”
    • Line 16: “supernatural sympathy”
    • Line 30: “Not,” “nor,” “look,” “lost”
    • Line 32: “dawn”
    • Line 33: “Softly,” “dreaming”
    • Line 34: “Such,” “day”
    • Line 37: “find,” “fed”

• “Lullaby” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Faithless
  • Ephemeral
  • Tolerant
  • Swoon
  • Supernatural sympathy
  • Venus
  • Abstract
  • Carnal ecstasy
  • Fidelity
  • Fashionable madmen
  • Pedantic
  • Farthing
  • The involuntary powers
  • (Location in poem: Line 2: “Human on my faithless arm;”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Lullaby”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Lullaby” Speaker

• “Lullaby” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Lullaby”

• More “Lullaby” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poem Aloud — Listen to historian and author Simon Schama read "Lullaby" and explain why it makes him cry.

    • The Poet's Life — A biography of W. H. Auden at Poetry Foundation.

    • A Celebration of Auden — A tribute to Auden's life and career, via the UK's South Bank Show.

    • An Auden Documentary — Watch a BBC film about the poet.

    • Auden and Modern UK Poets — An essay on the wider influence of 20th-century UK poets, including Auden.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by W. H. Auden

    • As I Walked Out One Evening

    • Epitaph on a Tyrant

    • Funeral Blues (Stop all the clocks)

    • In Memory of W. B. Yeats

    • Musée des Beaux Arts

    • Partition

    • Refugee Blues

    • September 1, 1939

    • The Capital

    • The More Loving One

    • The Shield of Achilles

    • The Unknown Citizen

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