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"A Cradle Song" is a poem by the English poet William Blake. It was retrieved from The Note-Book of c.1793 and was probably intended for "Songs of Experience", since there is a poem with the same title in "Songs of Innocence", however it was not engraved or included into the cycle, but left in a very rough sketchy manuscript.

The verses "When thy little heart doth wake, Then the dreadful night shall break." were quoted by director Gale Bertram at the end of the episode where Madeleine Hightower barely escapes with Jane's help. The random quote leaves Lisbon and LaRoche with puzzled faces until LaRoche identifies the verses as being from William Blake.

There are some divergences as to what those verses actually are. Along que one quoted by Bertram, the following versions were found:

  • "When thy little heart doth wake,
Then the dreadful lightnings break."
  • "When thy little heart doth wake,
Then the dreadful light shall break."

Follows the one that contains the version actually quoted by Bertram.

A Cradle Song by William Blake (1794)

Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming in the joys of night;
Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.

As thy softest limbs I feel
Smiles as of the morning steal
O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast
Where thy little heart doth rest.

O the cunning wiles that creep
In thy little heart asleep!
When thy little heart doth wake,
Then the dreadful night shall break.

From thy cheek and from thy eye,

O'er the youthful harvests nigh.

Infant wiles and infant smiles

Heaven and Earth of peace beguiles

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