As I read the poem “Lullaby” by Francisco Márquez for the first time, I felt it didn’t exactly resemble the poems we read in class. Initially, it seemed more like what would be found in a children’s book, similar to what my elementary school teachers would read to us. A resemblance I did find between the poems we’ve read in class, especially the works of Emily Dickenson, and this poem was how the middle stanzas wouldn’t conclude on a complete sentence, causing the previous stanza to flow into the next. This poem seemed straightforward enough in the first two and a half stanzas, only really prompting me to figure out the more profound meaning in the last stanza and a half.
I immediately noticed some details about this poem, including its title, “Lullaby,” and its organized structure that made it easy to read. Based on the title, I believed the poem would be calming and lyrical, possibly without a meaning that’s too hidden. After reading the poem, I realized the importance of the lullaby for both the boy and the speaker. The speaker, who we can assume is young based on their mother singing to them when they are unable to sleep, has something the boy within the lullaby does not have, being the method of achieving peace and rest. Using words with a dreamlike connotation such as “flown,” “heaven,” “doves,” and “music,” the tone of the poem stays peaceful throughout and invokes a relaxing feeling. The poem is broken down into four clearly defined stanzas separated by white space. Each of the four stanzas has four lines, displaying the security in knowing what comes next and the general cyclical nature of the poem. The poem reads more like a short story with two main characters, the speaker being sung to and the boy in the lullaby, instead of having a lyrical feel. I felt as though this feeling was intentional because it didn’t give us, the audience, the speaker’s direct experience, but instead put us in the shoes of the boy who isn’t able to achieve that peace. The poem demonstrates the boy’s cycle of repeatedly climbing up and down the tower, showing how he yearns for the idea of heaven. To clarify this cycle, the author repeats the word “everyday” when talking about him climbing both ways. Since he goes up and down the tower daily, he returns to where he started every time. By thinking about this idea of going back to where one started, I found another reference to this cyclical nature when the poem starts off talking about the speaker, then describes the story of the boy, then goes back to the speaker, resembling the idea of the boy being down, going up, and coming back down.
I initially found this poem difficult in various places, especially the last stanza, because I was interpreting the boy wanting to be “flown to heaven” as a more literal reference of wanting to pass away instead of interpreting it as him wanting to reach peace. I was fixating on details like the meaning behind the blue doves or the repeated idea of flying, but I found that these details weren’t as integral to understanding the meaning of the poem as a whole. To combat this confusion about the purpose of the story of the boy in the lullaby, I began thinking about heaven as a reference to eternal peace and satisfaction. I paid heavy attention to the last stanza to understand how it ties into the poem’s meaning and eventually found the most clarity in the line that confused me the most, being “where music waits to be sung.” This one line greatly connects the speaker and the boy by showing how the boy is waiting for his own lullaby. The speaker, feeling restless at the start, is calmed into sleep by the lullaby their mom sings. I began realizing this lullaby was their method of transport, their wings to be flown into a world of relaxation, one that the boy in the lullaby did not have. This new knowledge of the poem makes the reread much smoother, even making more sense of the line where the speaker thought of “what it was like for him, wingless,” because the speaker can’t relate to the struggles of not having wings to take them to sleep. I can still not find full clarity in the section “his second life repeating in the otherworld.” This part comes right before the music waiting to be sung, which is why I couldn’t exactly tell what the second life and otherworld are referring to. Either the otherworld could mean the heaven the boy is yearning for, which doesn’t entirely make sense because why would the music need to be sung after the boy has already found peace, or it could mean at the top of the tower where he is reaching for heaven, waiting for the music. The otherworld could also mean the world separate from the speaker rather than another world of the boy since this poem is from the speaker’s perspective. Figuring out what exactly the otherworld means would aid in figuring out what “his second life” is referring to, which could be his life after achieving peace.
The seemingly direct indirectness of this poem makes it more impactful than just being outright simple or difficult, which is why I have grown to love its whimsical nature of being as complex as you make it.
Hi, Ria! I think it’s really intriguing that you found a difficulty poem that appeared to be rather on the easier side as you connected this back to your childhood memories about poetry. But you were capable of looking past this shell. By this, you then created a deeper interpretation of this poem. Seeing you break down the poem’s structure and setting up a relationship between the speaker and boy is phenomenal. I thought it was interesting to see a metaphor of physical struggle (climbing up the tower) to unrest. A boy wishing to pass away is definitely a bit morbid for a childhood lullaby, but it’s interesting to see how it was used to show peace/satisfaction. The “wingless” description of the boy almost reminds me of a helpless bird that needs the help of the wind to fly (in this case the wind is the speaker). Your method of focusing on finding the overall meaning of the poe was a good strategy to not get caught up with the small, confusing details. You did a great job of finding a deeper meaning in what seemed to be a simpler poem. It was very eye-opening to see what your thinking process was. Thanks for the post, Ria!
Ria,
To start, I first read your poem without looking at what you had to say about it. I thought that the lullaby this boy was told throughout his childhood spoke to his struggles in life. These struggles include not being able to do what he desires to do, which is flying, but I think it can be applied to any struggle this boy may have endured while growing up. I was a little confused about what “otherworld” was a reference to. So, I went to your analysis of this poem and found that you had the same struggle. The phrase otherworld as one whole word and not two separate words suggests that it is only one place. But, the lack of specificity in defining it tells me that it is up to interpretation. I feel like this whole poem is very much establishing the grounds for the audience to relate to the boy relating to the boy in the lullaby. Because of this, I feel like the otherworld might be just wherever the reader can also feel joy? and sorrow? that the boy feels in his “song” or the telling of his story. The reason I am questioning joy and sorrow is that as a whole, after the colon at the end of line 13 (which is also majorly throwing me off), they bring up this song, which is seemingly about him, that takes on a “contrasting” negative image of this otherworld. At first glance, I thought it may have been similar to heaven, but the clear distinction between the two leads me to think otherwise. This in addition to the phrase “where music waits to be sung”, which I take to be a world without joy, makes me even more confused with what is going on at the end of the poem. As you did, breaking it down to understanding the lines helps me on that level but understanding it as a whole is where I am left confused.
Hi Ria! I love poems like this; the ones where it looks innocent and whimsical at first glance, but there’s a deeper meaning if you continue on to pick everything apart.
Like you, I initially thought that the speaker’s mother was singing a rather morbid lullaby about a boy wanting to die. Climbing up a tower and wishing that he had wings to fly to heaven gave me the rather dark image of a suicidal child. Instead of interpreting “flown” “heaven” and “music” as being related to peaceful sleep, I interpreted a more dark connotation, relating to being transferred to heaven by death.
Your interpretation of heaven being equivalent to sleep and peace within the context of this poem really gave this poem a more innocent meaning.
I like your interpretation of a lullaby as the vehicle for the speaker to be brought to the peace of sleep. I think that a mother light-heartedly singing about how lucky her child is to have a mother that will carry him to peace is a lot more realistic than a mother singing about a suicidal child.
While I love whimsical and innocent poems, I especially love how much richer the meaning gets when you look for more meaning behind the author’s words.
Hello Ria,
I liked your poem a lot and am glad that you shared it. On my first read of your poem, I was confused about who the boy was, why there were doves in the sky but the sky was “featherless,” and if the wingless boy tried jumping off the tower to be like the birds. Now, after reading your analysis, many of my misunderstandings have been eased. I really liked how you characterized the diction, as I couldn’t really pinpoint exactly why the poem felt calm, but you did perfectly. If you were confused about the doves, they may have been allusions to christian heaven, because doves are associated with Christianity. The doves represent salvation/peace in Christianity. Also, blue doves blend in with the sky so maybe the boy couldn’t find peace. I like how you talk about how both the narrator being put to sleep and the boy both want/need lullabies. I feel like you’re on the right track when you say that his “[second life] could be his life after achieving peace.” The blue dove analogy makes a lot of sense to me at least, and I’m immensely proud of myself that I noticed it. Although on a cursory glance the poem seems childlike and simplistic, it appears to be far from it, perhaps. Thanks for sharing!
Hey Ria,
Wow! Your analysis of “Lullaby” flowed so well, I feel like I am reading your mind. The way you broke down each step of your thought process was helpful in understanding how you reached your conclusion.
When I first read your poem I did not even take note of how the four stanza structure could represent the security of knowing what comes next. Additionally, I like how you separated the poem with the two clear subjects: the speaker and the boy. I also thought the line “to be flown into heaven” meant the boy wanted to pass away. But your explanation makes much more sense in the context of the poem.
One characteristic I noticed was the punctation throughout the poem. I know you mentioned how the the stanzas would flow into the next, but I couldn’t help but notice Márquez’s use of commas. Especially between the second and third stanza, how the chronological list of the boy’s routine connects the two stanzas. I wonder why Márquez chose to separate the stanza there. Maybe to keep the four line staza consistency like you mentioned.
I thouroughly enjoyed reading your analysis and I appreciate how free-flowing it was!