Republic of the Philippines

COMMISION ON HIGHER EDUCATION

Region V (BICOL)
Province of Albay
Libon Community College
Libon, Albay

REGAYA, REGINE S. BSED III-English

Stylistics and Discourse Analysis Mr. Ariane Nel G. Sedano

“LULLABY”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Sweet and low, sweet and low,

Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,

Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest, on mother’s breast,
Father will come to thee soon;
Father will come to his babe in the nest,
Silver sails all out of the west
Under the silver moon:
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep.

Lullaby is a poem written by Sir Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and was published in the
year 1827 in England. It is a type of poem written with the intention of expressing personal
feelings, entertaining the audience, and calming a child in the manner of singing. I chose
this literary piece for the reason that I am into Sir Alfred’s writing style and techniques. I
read a lot of poems in an old book and this one catches my attention because of the
writer’s choice of words. Mostly, the poems I read in that particular book are traditional
poems and this, Lullaby is the only exception because it is a lyric poem. At first, I hesitated
to use this poem in this activity because it seems like Lullaby is a poem for children but
then, by understanding and digging deeper into the history of England I found out that this
poem is intriguing.
 The genre of the poem is song under Lyric Poetry. A lullaby is a poem intended to
be sung, usually to calm and lull a child to sleep, and also to entertain the audience. The
writer used mostly, iambic sestet in writing the lines employing a perfect-chained rhyme
scheme (ABABAABC DEDEDDEC) in o ctave.
The writer utilized various figures of speech in order to give the poem life. He uses
numerous symbolisms, metaphors, and euphemisms to hide the dark truth of the story
depicted in the poem. He also used several repetitions, assonance, consonance,
personification, hyperbole, metonymy, euphony, and parallelism (shown in the last part of
the analysis) to put the essence of a song for a child. These figures of speech utilized in
this poem not only give aesthetic or pleasing sound or scheme but also emphasizes the
portrayal of its theme (mentioned in the fifth paragraph).
Literally, the writer is depicting that the mother is gently caressing and calming the
baby/child (lines 9,10,11) by sweetly telling the child that the father will come soon (lines
2,3,4 wherein the western sea and the dying moon is a metaphor for the deceased
husband and lines 10,11,12 is plainly speaking that the father will come soon). On the
other hand, a horror story lies beneath the Lullaby. By contextualizing and digging deeper
between the lines, it can be derived that the mother is grieving for her dying child (lines
8, 9, and 12) and that she is asking her deceased husband for strength to overcome the
situation (lines 1-7). The term western sea is a symbol for the deceased father/husband
and the dying moon for hope. Wherein I can say that the father is the hope of the family
and that lines under the silver moon, sleep my little one, where the silver moon is a
metaphor for the coffin. In the poem lies a dark story that the child is dying, and the mother
is singing, asking her late husband to meet and guide the child to the other life. Maybe,
the child died due to war. How did I say so? Because the poem is written by Sir Alfred,
Lord Tennyson in the year 1827 when two wars, the Anglo-Ashanti war and the Battle of
Navarino broke out in England and lasted a decade.
The underlying theme of the poem Lullaby is a mother’s pure heart and strong
mind where though she suffers from what happened she still needs to look strong on the
outside so that the child/ person passing away will leave with reassurance that the mother
will be okay.
In analyzing the poem, I used New Historicist criticism wherein, I studied the events
during the making of the poem, setting- where and when the poem was made, biography
of the author and experiences of the author and I relate it to the context of the poem. I
also mixed Formalism or new criticism in which I break down the parts in order to
understand the meaning of the whole poem. I was able to draw conclusion and
understand the whole context by looking at the author’s history and understanding the
words and phrases used in the literary text.
 Overall, the poem of sir Alfred, Lord of Tennyson is not only made to entertain and
lull a child to sleep but also, the poem illustrates the happenings in England during those
times.

“LULLABY”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Sweet and low, sweet and low, Euphony

Wind of the western sea, Symbolism
Low, low, breathe and blow, Assonance
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go, Personification
Come from the dying moon, and blow Metaphor
Blow him again to me; Hyperbole Repitition
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,

Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest, on mother’s breast, Parallelism
Father will come to thee soon;
Father will come to his babe in the nest, Metonymy
Silver sails all out of the west Metaphor
Under the silver moon:
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. Euphemism