Lyric Poem · Dreams & Sleep

A Song

by William Blake

Reading room

1Sweet dreams, form a shade

2O'er my lovely infant's head!

3Sweet dreams of pleasant streams

4By happy, silent, moony beams!

5Sweet Sleep, with soft down

6Weave thy brows an infant crown

7Sweet Sleep, angel mild,

8Hover o'er my happy child!

9Sweet smiles, in the night

10Hover over my delight!

11Sweet smiles, mother's smile,

12All the livelong night beguile.

13Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,

14Chase not slumber from thine eyes!

15Sweet moan, sweeter smile,

16All the dovelike moans beguile.

17Sleep, sleep, happy child!

18All creation slept and smiled.

19Sleep, sleep, happy sleep,

20While o'er thee doth mother weep.

21Sweet babe, in thy face

22Holy image I can trace;

23Sweet babe, once like thee

24Thy Maker lay, and wept for me:

25Wept for me, for thee, for all,

26When He was an infant small.

27Thou His image ever see,

28Heavenly face that smiles on thee!

29Smiles on thee, on me, on all,

30Who became an infant small;

31Infant smiles are his own smiles;

32Heaven and earth to peace beguiles.

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“A Song” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/a-song

Quick facts

Poem: A Song
Poet: William Blake
Length: 32 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Dreams & Sleep, Sad, Childhood

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape: 32 lines · 8 quatrains
Line length: Lines run 5-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record: William Blake1757–1827
Source record: PoetryDBA Song by william-blake, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision: Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record: Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint: SHA-256 d6d686671b97d3ae…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Dreams & Sleep Sad Childhood

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