“Lullaby” Introduction

• 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