The Innocence of Lamb in Songs of Innocence by William Blake

In the poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," William Blake uses symbolism, tone, and rhyme to advance the theme that God can create good and bad creatures. The poem "The Lamb" was in Blake's "Songs of Innocence," which was published in 1789. "The Tyger," in his "Songs of Experience," was published in 1794. In these contrasting poems he shows symbols of what he calls "the two contrary states of the human soul" (Shilstone 1).

The most leading literary device used in Blake’s poems is symbolism. In this particular poem, “The Lamb” is a reference to God himself. This is because of the trinity that is involved with being a Christ follower. The trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The child in the poem, is a symbol as innocence and purity just like Jesus Christ. Christians are to “receive the kingdom of God like a child” (Luke 18:17, ESV). This means that we are to have child-like faith, and trust in God, just like children do in their parents.

Just like the “lamb” that was born into this world through a virgin and was sacrificed for all mankind, this same “lamb” made us and called us by his name. In his poem "The Lamb," William Blake clearly uses repetition, personification, and symbolism to describe his religious beliefs and how a pure sacrifice is portrayed by a little lamb. Laura Quinney’s book, “William Blake on Self and Soul,” shows the religious side of Blake when it says, “Blake makes this argument in his address “To the Deists,” where he insists “Man must & will have Some Religion; if he has not the Religion of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan” (Quinney, 2009). Blake uses his religious view to show us he believes that our creator is the Lamb of God. He distinctively uses the innocence and purity of a little lamb and how its creator clearly takes care of it. The lamb is fed, given water by the stream and a bidden a blessed life.

For example, in “Infant Joy,” Blake demonstrates the child’s eye and sense of wonder that we find in the incorruptibility of infants. Blake presents a truly pure creature in the first stanza:

Everything in the universe has an opposite. This provides a balance, a push and pull, to the world. Because of this truth, no thing that exists is entirely one thing or the other. Every animal, object, and event that has ever existed may have had bad effects in one situation, but good effects for another situation. And every human, by extension, has aspects about them that can be viewed as both good and evil. In his poems, “The Tyger” and, “The Lamb”, author William Blake explores the ideas of duality, and how each thing must have an equal opposite. He uses both these poems to further ruminate on this dichotomy and brings up many questions in the context of religion. He seeks to point out that in the Christian belief system, all things viewed as good and bad in the world have apparently come from the same thing: God, and yet God is seen as being entirely good. But if that is the case, then how can God be all good if all the evil things come from him as well? Is anything then truly evil? Or does it just seem that way from one perspective? Blake uses these two poems in conjunction with one another to make the reader question these things and think about what good and evil actually mean.

The first extreme in Blake’s Songs of Innocence & Songs of Experience is innocence. The Songs of Innocence is comprised of poems of young children who have a naïve perspective of the world around them. In The Lamb, the young child is compared to a untainted lamb who has not been corrupted by the world. In The Chimney Sweepers the orphaned child is sold to be a chimneysweeper. The child clearly has no hope for any future, however the naïve child listens to the voice of the angel and makes peace with his situation. He blindly accepts the comfort without coming to the recognition that he will ultimately die. In The Little Black Boy, the child doesn’t recognize the prevalent racism of his time. He believes that he and the white child can sit together in the light of G-d and together they will be like innocent sheep. These children encounter

Thesis Statement: The Lamb written by William Blake is a beautiful spiritually enriched poem that expresses God’s sovereignity, His love for creation and His gentleness in care and provisions for those that are His .

Many people are viewed by their actions in life. Most would believe to be born pure and innocent. William Blake wrote a poem called, “The Lamb” which told the message that jesus created an sweet, gentle animal. The lamb symbolizes purity and innocence. The archetype means the people who consider themselves like a lamb are followers not leaders.

“The Lamb” in Songs of Innocence, and “The Tyger” in Songs of Experience were written with biblical influence, and Blake demonstrates his biblical upbringing through out these poems. “The Lamb” is represented through a pastoral story line, allowing a connection with agriculture and nature, much like many stories in the Bible. “The Tyger’s” storyline, however introduces the question of theodicy, or why there is evil in the world. How can God make a lamb so innocent and pure, and in turn create something so evil and cruel? Throughout “The Tyger”, Blake asks hypothetical questions,

The poem The Lamb is a poem of gentle context. the words are use to discribe child like behavior and the innocence of the child itself. the poem makes readers feel warm thing of the little lamb. the way the lamb acts as a child walks with a wobble talks barely and thinks like a child. always wanting to play in the yard run arround with it's other lamb friends.

Romantic Poetry: Blake’s Biblical References William Blake’s illustrated collection of poems, “Songs of Innocence and Experience”, were written to contrast the different elements of the human soul. Throughout the collection, Blake redefines both innocence and experience, and closely contrasts them through two parallel poems, “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”. Both poems incorperate biblical references, amd present a clearer view of the relationship between innocence and experience. Blake was a pious man, and as a young child, he had visions of God, angels, and believed to have recieved messages from his deceased brother.

In both “The Lamb” and the Tyger” by William Blake, a child questions the existence of who made them. “Who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?” from “The Lamb” versus “What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry” from “The Tyger”. Both represent the child’s innocence and total curiosity.

Blake's poems of innocence and experience are a reflection of Heaven and Hell. The innocence in Blake's earlier poems represents the people who will get into Heaven. They do not feel the emotions of anger and

The poem begins with the question, "Little Lamb, who made thee?" The speaker, a child, asks the lamb about its origins: how it came into being, how it acquired its particular manner of feeding, its "clothing" of wool, its "tender voice." In the next stanza, the speaker attempts a riddling answer to his own question: the lamb was made by one who "calls himself a Lamb," one who resembles in his gentleness both the child and the lamb. The poem ends with the child bestowing a blessing on the lamb.

In Songs of Innocence, the dominant symbol is the child. The poems are narrated from the standpoint of a child and represent the early stages of the human imagination. At this point in its life, the imagination is not fully formed and does not yet contain its own distinctive character. The innocent's world view is one of "Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love" where God the creator bestows meaning upon nature.