What Does George Gasciogne's Lullaby Mean

Kelly Lynch

December 20, 2015

AP Literature

Hersker

Sound and Sense Essay

According to Perinne’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, “[t]he poet, unlike the person who uses language to convey only information, chooses words for sound as well as for meaning, and the sound as a means of reinforcing meaning” (Perinne 899). This is evident in George Gasciogne’s poem Gasciogne’s Lullaby in that the sound elements within the work directly support its meaning; that meaning being that the sexual parts of oneself are childish, and, as such, can be easily tamed. Lullabies are often used to subdue children that are rowdy or upset. In turn, the speaker aims to calm his own upset, which comes in the form of lust, by similar means. Sound devices such as euphony, alliteration, iambic meter, and a simple and consistent rhyme scheme contribute to the poem’s resemblance to a true ‘lullaby’; in turn, the resulting overall sound supports the meaning of the work as a whole in that it is comparative to those sounds which are used to calm

children, or rather the ‘childish’ nature of some parts of oneself.
Though the plot or subject of Gasciogne’s Lullaby may not at first be clearly visible, when one looks closer, it becomes evident that the focus of the work is sexual repression. For instance, within the poem, the speaker easily subdues his lust with a ‘lullaby’ and encourages his son to do the same. A specific excerpt that demonstrates this is when Gasciogne writes “But welcome pain, let pleasure pass./ With lullaby now take your leave,/ With lullaby your dreams deceive,/ And when you rise with waking eye,/ Remember Gascoigne's lullaby” (Gascoigne 44-48). The use of words such as ‘pain’ and ‘pleasure’ is symbolic in that the former represents repression while the latter signifies sexual desires. Furthermore, the speaker’s reference to “wanton babes” leads one to infer that the work is at least partially focused on an aspect of sexuality in that the word ‘wanton’ connotes that one is sexually immodest or promiscuous (Gasciogne 7). This in turn circles back to the meaning of the work that is supported by a variety of sound devices within the poem, that meaning being that lustful feelings are childish and can—and should—be easily repressed.
One of the most prominent sound devices within the poem that serves to paint it as a ‘lullaby’ is euphony, or the quality of being soothing to the ear. This is often the selling point of a traditional lullaby in that it is meant to calm and comfort the child it is being sang to, and, as a result, is effective in subsiding the speaker’s lustful desires. Lines such as, “Since all too late I find by skill/ How dear I have thy fancies bought”, and “My body shall obey thy will” contain combinations of sounds that are melodious and pleasing to listen to, which as a result demonstrate euphony (Gascoigne 27-28, 32) . For example, in lines twenty-seven to twenty-eight, the ‘s’ sounds in the beginning of the words ‘since’ and ‘skill’, and the ending of ‘fancies’ flow nicely together and even seem to imitate the ‘shh’ing sound that parents make to calm their children. Furthermore, in line thirty-two, the ending ‘y’ sounds in words such as ‘my’, ‘body’, ‘obey’, and ‘thy’ seem to, in addition to offering the phrase a pleasant sound, extend the sounds of the words so that they appear longer or slower, as if they, like a baby or the speaker’s desires, are being calmed.
Another sound device that makes Gascoigne's Lullaby reminiscent of a true ‘lullaby’ is alliteration. The type of alliteration that the poet chooses to employ is consonance. One specific example of this is evident in the lines, “Since age is cold and nothing coy,/ Keep close thy coin, for so is best” (Gasciogne 35-36).Though this might seem counterproductive in that consonants such as the letters ‘c’ and ‘k’ are typically perceived as having harsher pronunciation than vowels, the rhythm of the strong, repeated consonant sounds gives the poem a sort of driving cadence. This, in turn, is similar to a baby’s lullaby in that consistent rhythmic phrases are satisfying and relaxing to hear. Conversely, the consonance of the letter ‘w’ in the line, “My will, my ware and all that was” is effective in achieving a different sort of rhythmic due to the fact that it, much like ‘y’ sounds previously mentioned, serves to extend or even slow the line in which is appears (Gasciogne 42). Both of these excerpts demonstrate how the rhythmic nature of the consonance in Gascoigne’s Lullaby liken it to a true ‘lullaby’; however, consonance is not the only sound device present in the work which achieves its purpose rhymically.
Yet another sound device that supports the idea that the poem is meant to sound like a lullaby to imitate the self-talk that the poet performs in order subdue his lust is the meter of the poem.

After performing a simple scansion analysis, it is not difficult to gather that the meter of Gascoigne's Lullaby is iambic in nature. This is evident in the line, “Sing lullaby, as women do” as every other syllable follows a pattern of being respectively stressed or unstressed (Gasciogne 1). This sound device’s effectivity, much like that of consonance, is based upon the rhythm that it establishes. The use of iambic meter rather than spondaic or dactylic is significant because the balance of stressed and unstressed syllables establishes an even beat that is nearly songlike in nature. As a lullaby is typically made up of verses meant to be sung, this only makes sense, and ultimately connects back to the poem’ overall resemblance to a children’s

lullaby.
Perhaps the most important sound device that Gasciogne employs is the simple rhyme scheme he creates. Though one might assume the rhyme scheme of the poem to be abab cdcd efef gg simply from its clear iambic pentameter, the true rhyme pattern is abab throughout and then ccdd in the last four lines. By opening the poem with lines such as “With lullaby they still the child,/ And if I be not much beguiled,/ Full many wanton babes have I/ Which must be stilled with lullaby, the poet clearly establishes this in that the ‘iled’ sounds at the ends of lines five and six, as well as the long ‘i’ sounds at the ends of lines seven and eight, echo each other exactly (Gasciogne 5-8). This rhyme scheme is significant to the poem’s identity as a ‘lullaby’ in that its clean sounds and end-stopped lines are similar to those of nursery rhymes and actual lullabies.