The Lamb by William Blake Analysis Essays

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).

Delightfully this seems to imply association with Jesus, the Lamb of God, and his righteousness. The softness is associated with the gentleness and humbliness of the Savior. The lamb is next about such a tender voice that voice that makes the vales rejoice. The speaker is simply asking the lamb, “Dost thou know who made thee?” [2]

Blake wanted people to read this poem and understand his concept of questioning God, for how could God make something so innocent and pure as the Lamb and then in turn make something so evil? The situation is very similar to the

“The Lamb” is a poem written by William Blake that has a handful of ideas or concepts going on all at once. The setting is unknown to the readers, but we know that the speaker is a child because it is made clear in the 17th line where Blake writes “I a child & thou a lamb.” When I first read this poem, I was dazed and confused. I initially thought why the child is talking to an animal when Blake writes ““Little Lamb who made thee” (1). Blake then proceeds to ask questions about the lamb’s origin. What does the child hope to accomplish when speaking rhetorically to an animal? This first stanza is meant to seem innocent, sincere and shrewd as if the child was joking around with the lamb, since the child is not expecting an answer. The child who represents innocence because children are often seen as innocent, is asking the little lamb about its origins. I thought the child was perhaps bored and might be a shepard speaking to one of his sheep that he takes care of and looks after. My initial reading led me to believe that in the last stanza, Blake suddenly moves from a innocent and humorous tone towards a serious conversation with the animal about Christianity and religion.

The description of its "Softest clothing wooly bright" is one of the most sensual images in the poem. The imagined lamb is addressed through being called "little," the lamb is domesticated and treated like a pet. The picture of The Lamb's feeding "by the stream and o'er the mead" is a beautiful one, which suggests God's kindness in creation, and has an echo of similar descriptions in the Old Testament book of Psalms and the parables of Jesus. Blake reminds The Lamb, and us, that the God who made The Lamb, also is like The Lamb.

The Lamb is a poem of innocence, I came to this conclusion by the fact that a lamb possesses a virtue of pureness and kindness. You aren't ever warned about being around a lamb and having to watch your back because of the possibility of it attacking you. Another thing that had caught my eye with the Lamb is that all lambs have white fleece and white is a symbol of purity and nothing has corrupted this creature. On page 748 line 16 “He became a little child” Blake compares the lamb to a child and what could be more innocent

They lament the ways in which the intense and harsh experiences of adulthood destroy human innocence while exposing the apparent weaknesses of the innocent perspective on life. “The Tyger,” for example, tries to confront the negative forces in life, while the innocent perspective is not even aware of such forces. These poems also question the inherent “goodness” of love and sexual morality by discussing them as effects of jealousy, secrecy, lust, and shame. In regards to religion, these poems focus much more on the institution of the Church, its role in politics, and its effect on society and the mind rather than individual faith. Blake believes that experience adds a layer to innocence that darkens its hopeful vision, while taking away from its blindness.

This poem is about a naïve lamb, which is young and new to the world and its dangers and hardships. The whimsical lamb is asked who its creator was. Blake, “Little Lamb who made thee, dost thou know who made thee. ”(Page 748, 1-2) Later, we find out that the speaker in this poem is the author himself.

I think God made the Tyger as well as the Lamb because God created all the creatures on earth. The Poem has sixth stanzas, in general, and let's look at the stanzas to prove my point. The first stanza uses a general question said, "what immortal hand or eye could fearful symmetry?”. And I think it tells us how bad Tyger are to push people off or make them afraid of Tyger. The second stanza mentions an illusion of where the creature (The Tyger) was created. The third stanza describes how the creator formed this Tyger, for example, he created the Tyger with a dread hand and feet. The fourth stanza mentions the tools were used for this creature such as hammer, furnace, and chain. In the fifth and sixth stanza, Blake created a confusion because

William Blake uses figurative speech during both The Tyger and The Lamb poems. The figurative speech that Blake chose to exploit within these two poems is helpful in assisting the reader in fully understanding the meaning of the poems. Symbolism can be seen in the poem, The Lamb. Blake exploits symbols to signify traits of something else during The Lamb. Imagery can be seen throughout the poem, The Tyger. Blake utilizes imagery throughout The Tyger in order for the reader to complete imagine and understand what the text is stating. The figurative speech that Blake exercises throughout both of these poems assists readers in staying engaged throughout the text and fully grasping the full meaning.

In the second stanza, there is a recognition of the lamb, Christ, and the child. Christ has another name, Lamb, because Christ is meek and mild like a

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 Lamb by William Blake belongs in the song innocence category. When a person thinks of a lamb they think of a sweet animal who could do no harm, and this is exactly what songs of innocence means. In some ways the lamb is pure and childish. Lambs do not have anger and do not really care how things workout. In the poem, The Lamb by William Blake he explains, “Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly delight (lines 5-6).” Blake recognizes all the good qualities that lamb’s posses and is very positive about the lamb although it may not be the smartest animal. In God’s eye his son is lamb.

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.

The author uses words like “thee” or “thou” to develop this feeling. The simple speech also supports the idea that the narrator is young, inexperienced and curios. He or she did not meet with any significant evil and keeps an ability to admire simple sings. The narrator looks exultantly at the lamb and creates direct connections between the sheep’s calf and the God. He asks “Little Lamb, who made thee?” (“The Lamb” l. 1) and gives the answer be himself in following lines that the animal appeared at the mercy of God. The Lord not only created the Lamb, but also shared some of his characteristics with it. “For He calls Himself a Lamb. He is meek, and He is mild” (“The Lamb” l. 14-15). In this poem Blake represents a classic Biblical idea that all people and other creatures were made by the God. While the religion says only human beings were created in the Lord’s image and likeness, the author mentions some animals also adopted some of His features. It can be a sign that the lamb in the poem is a metaphor for a human: “I a child, and thou a lamb, we are called by His name” (“The Lamb” l. 17-18). The Lamb of God is also a symbol of Jesus