Lullaby by John Fuller - Essay Example

John’s lullaby goes as follows: Sleep little baby, clean as a nutyour fingers uncurl and your eyes are shutyour life was ours, which is with youGo on your journey. We go too The bat is flying around the houselike an umbrella turned into a mousethe moon is astonished and so are the sheeptheir bells have come to send you to sleep Oh be our rest, our hopeful startTurn your head to my beating heartSleep little baby, clean as a nutYour fingers uncurl and your eyes are shut                                                                                                             (Fuller) This lullaby by John Fuller is a very soothing poem.

It is a perfect one for a parent singing to his or her newborn. The lullaby has many aspects to it. The author, John Fuller has explained his experience as a father through this poem and has written a lullaby for his child so that he could sleep soundly and quickly. The purpose of the poem is solely to explain the feeling of a parent when he sees his newborn child sleeping in front of his eyes. In the first two lines of the poem, he describes the way a newborn baby sleeps. The metaphor “as a nut” is figurative which explains the way a little baby sleeps.

Then, he mentions that a parent’s life is with his children and the way that they go. I think that Fuller is deeply attached to his child and is hence saying to his child that his life is attached to his child’s life. Fuller is explaining that the life that his child has is his and he is a part of him. The journey over here means the life journey and Fuller relates his child’s journey to his journey. Fuller has to go on with his journey and now it is time that his child will go on towards his own journey.

            After relating his life to his child’s, fuller is further telling that night has advanced and therefore has given the example of a bat. A bat sleeps in the day and flies in the night; these lines in the lullaby signify that night has drawn near. To signify the beauty and the presence of his child, he is referring to the moon and the sheep which are all astonished by the sight of his child. The bells hanging around the sheep’s neck are pointing the child to sleep because night has come leaving the day behind.

            The final lines of the lullaby by John fuller signify that he is telling his baby to sleep on his chest so that he may sleep soundly. At the end again, the author is telling his child to sleep as a nut with his eyes shut.             While reading this lullaby, I felt a strong emotion; the universal bond between a parent and a child and how every parent wants to see his child sleep soundly without any disturbance.

My feelings were affected mostly by the lines when John Fuller mentions that before his child was born, his child’s life was theirs but after he is born, he has another journey while his parents have to go another way. Moreover, a sense of fundamental relationship that is the relationship between a child and his parent is expressed by the terms “a hopeful start”; the start of a new life together.             Some words and phrases in the lullaby are ambiguous at the first instance.

For Example, the flying of the bat is suddenly followed by the phrase “Like an umbrella turned into a mouse”. The flying of the bat though signifies that night has drawn near but the phrase immediately following it regarding the mouse has more than literal meaning to it. Thinking deep into the terms, it can be inferred that the author has used the word “bat” in cognition with the word “mouse”. The word umbrella in the lullaby probably signifies the shape of the wings of the bat and the way it flies about.

            John Fuller, as a parent has gone beyond explaining that he is not the only one who is startled and stunned while looking at his child's sleep but so are the moon and the sheep. I think this line in the lullaby is the strongest of all because it explains the explicit attachment that a father has with his children. Another thing that I gathered from the poem is the positivity of the poet because he mentions a hopeful start together.

An optimistic view of the beginning of a new life between a parent and a child signifies that every parent thinks positively about his children.  While reading this poem, one realizes how effective and pure a bond is between a child and his parent. Also, the way John Fuller has written this lullaby signifies the attachment of a parent with his child. The overall purpose of both the poem and the poet remains that the child goes to sleep.