THE LAMB By William Blake

 

“The Lamb” is a didactic poem by English visionary William Blake, published in his 1789 collection Songs of Innocence. The poem represents the lamb an expression of God's will and the beauty of God's creation. The speaker of the poem is a child, who shows an intuitive understanding of the nature of joy and, indeed, the joy of nature. In the figure of the lamb, the poem sees a symbol for all of God’s works. The poem is a kind of hymn to God, praising God's creation while also implying that humankind has lost the ability to appreciate god’s mastery in creation.

 

The Lamb

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

Little Lamb who made thee 

         Dost thou know who made thee 

Gave thee life & bid thee feed. 

By the stream & o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing wooly bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice! 

         Little Lamb who made thee 

         Dost thou know who made thee 

 

   The poem begins with the innocent question of a child, who directly addresses a lamb, asking it if it knows who created it, who gave it life and told it to eat. The lamb is described in its pastoral setting, playing beside streams and running over the meadows. Who gave the lamb pleasing clothing of soft white wool? Who gave the lamb gentle voice that makes the surrounding valleys glad? The speaker then asks again: Who made the lamb?

 

   

         Little Lamb I'll tell thee,

         Little Lamb I'll tell thee!

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb: 

He is meek & he is mild, 

He became a little child: 

I a child & thou a lamb, 

We are called by his name.

         Little Lamb God bless thee. 

         Little Lamb God bless thee.

 

In the second stanza, the speaker himself offers the answers to the questions he has asked. The creator or god is called by the same name as the lamb because he calls himself a "Lamb." He is one who resembles both the child and the lamb, in his gentleness. The speaker is a child, Both the speaker and the lamb share the name of their creator.  The poem ends with the child bestowing a blessing on the lamb.

 

Explanation

 

“The Lamb” is a religious poem that marvels at the wonders of God’s creation. In the poem, a child who directly addresses a lamb, asking it if it knows who created it, who gave it life and told it to eat. The lamb is described in its pastoral setting, playing beside streams and running over the meadows. Who gave the lamb pleasing clothing of soft white wool? Who gave the lamb gentle voice that makes the surrounding valleys glad? The speaker then asks again: Who made the lamb?

In the meek and gentle figure of the lamb, the speaker sees great evidence of God’s work. Lamb is the expression of God. Through the example of the lamb, the speaker suggests that the entire world is in fact an expression of God.

The poem is addressed directly to the lamb. Though the lamb cannot respond to the questions posed, its very existence is answer enough to the question of “who made” it. The speaker is clearly awed by the lamb.  It is small, fragile, and innocent. By existing, it proves the delicate beauty of God’s creation, which is why it makes the speaker so joyful.

The poem rhetorically asks, “who made thee?” but rest of the poem presents the evidence that God is the maker. The first stanza presents the lamb in its natural habitat, a beautiful pastoral scene in which the lamb is free to run around. All that the lamb needs are provided for it, making the lamb a symbol of freedom and joy. This is God’s intention for all His creatures: that they live happy and joyful lives.

As the first stanza asks the question about the lamb’s existence, the second gives the clear reply. Here, the poem picks up on the symbolism of the lamb. In John 1:29 in the Bible, Jesus Christ is given the title “Lamb of God.” So, Blake here alludes to the Bible, saying that God calls himself a lamb-that the lamb is God, just as the Bible describes Jesus himself to be God. Both the lamb and the speaker, who is a child, are “called by his name.” The poem thus expresses deep trust and faith in God’s work, suggesting that both the child and the lamb are safe in God’s hands. And to emphasize this sense of blissful comfort, the poem ends with the speaker blessing the lamb. By extension, the poem thus blesses all of God’s creation, both praising it and expressing thanks for its existence.

 Form

“The Lamb” is a didactic poem having two stanzas, each containing five rhymed couplets. Repetition in the first and last couplet of each stanza makes these lines into a refrain, and helps to give the poem its song-like quality. The flowing l’s and soft vowel sounds contribute to this effect, and also suggest the bleating of a lamb or the lisping character of a child’s chant.

Alliteration: Blake uses alliteration in the following line: “He is meek & he is mild”.

Irony: The speaker reveals himself as a child but is ironically wise and eloquent.

 Allusion: An allusion is a brief reference to a person, place, thing, event, or other literary work with which the reader is presumably familiar.

Blake alludes to the traditional biblical depiction of Jesus as a Lamb. The lamb symbolizes Jesus. The traditional image of Jesus as a lamb emphasizes the Christian values of gentleness, meekness, and peace. The image of the child is also associated with Jesus. The Lamb can be seen as a metaphor for Jesus, to emphasize his qualities of meekness and innocence: "For he calls himself a Lamb."

Hyperbole: The speaker says that the voice of the lamb makes all the vales rejoice.

Enjambment: In poetry, enjambment describes a clause or a sentence that continues from one line to the next without a pause and without punctuation.

Little Lamb who made thee 

            Dost thou know who made thee 

Imagery is used to make the readers perceive things with their five senses. The poet has used images such as, “Softest clothing wooly bright”, “He became a little child:” and “By the stream & o’er the mead.”

The Tyger by William Blake

William Blake, (Born on 28^th Nov., 1757, and died on 12^th August, 1827).

William Blake was an English engraver, artist, poet, and visionary, and mainly known for his exquisite lyrics in Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794). He was born in London and spent most of his life there. He was first educated at home, mainly by his mother. His parents encouraged him to collect the prints of the Italian masters’ paintings and in 1767 sent him to Henry Pars’ drawing school.

He experienced visions of angels and ghostly monks from his early years. He claimed that he saw and conversed with the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and various other historical figures. These memories never left him and influenced his poetry throughout his life. He authored insightful and difficult “prophecies,” such as Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1793) and The First Book of Urizen (1794).

He published his poems as the integrated works of poetic and visual art, etching words and drawings onto copper plates. He colored the individual prints by hand. Among his best-known lyrics today are “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” “London,” and the “Jerusalem” and ‘Milton’.In the early 21st century, Blake was regarded as the earliest and most original of the Romantic poets, but in his lifetime, he was generally neglected or dismissed as mad.

Songs of Innocence was originally a complete work first printed in 1789. It is a conceptual collection of 19 poems, engraved with artwork. This collection mainly shows happy, innocent perception in pastoral harmony.

Songs of Experience is a poetry collection of 26 poems forming the second part of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The poems were published in 1794. The poems lament the ways in which the harsh experiences of adult life destroy what is good in innocence.

 

William Blake: The Tiger

Stanza 1

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 

In the forests of the night; 

What immortal hand or eye, 

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

The poet begins by saying that the tiger is burning bright in the forests of the night. The line means that the tiger which is in the forest, is burning like fire or the tiger looks like yellow fire in the dead of the night. The phrase ‘burning bright’ reflects the tiger’s bright yellow colour that causes the animal look fierce. Who could create the tiger’s fearful structure? The poet is appreciating the power of God who can create such a fearful structure and bear its appearance. The sight of tiger itself frightening.

Stanza 2

In what distant deeps or skies. 

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?

In the next stanza, the poet talks about the eyes of the tiger. He admires where from the fire has been brought and put into the eyes of the tiger. The fire has been brought either from distant skies (i.e., either sun or heaven) or from deep oceans (means either core of the earth or hell) because it must be a divine fire that makes the eyes of the tiger so fierce.

In the third line, the poet wonders which wings the creator (God) used to bring fire from distant places. Similarly, which hands dared to catch that divine fire. The first two lines appreciate the fire in the eyes of the tiger and the 3rd and 4th lines appreciate the wings and hands of the Creator.

Stanza 3

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

In the third stanza, the poet talks about the heart of the tiger. He marvels at the shoulders and the art the Creator would have used to shape the muscles of the tiger’s heart. Here the poet is praising the power and amazing art of God which helped Him create tiger’s heart.

In the third and fourth lines, he speculates how powerful the Creator’s hands and feet are, which made Him stand in front of the tiger when its heart began to beat. In this stanza, the poet seems to praise the Creator’s physical power, audacious nature and His astounding art.

Stanza 4

What the hammer? what the chain, 

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp, 

Dare its deadly terrors clasp! 

In the fourth stanza, the poet praises the brain of the tiger. He is in awe about the hammer, the chain and the anvil the Creator would have used to create the brain of the tiger. These tools are used by the iron-smith to create solid and heavy items.

The poet imagines that the brain of the tiger must be as hard as iron. Hence, he thinks about the divine tools the creator would have used to create the brain of such a deadly animal. Again, the poet admires how powerful would be the grasp of the Creator which could hold the strong brain of this animal.

Stanza 5

When the stars threw down their spears 

And water'd heaven with their tears: 

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

In this stanza, the poet tends to compare the ferocious tiger to the lamb which is meek, innocent and quite opposite to the former.

There is also a reference to a Biblical incidence as mentioned in Paradise Lost by John Milton, which need attention to have a better comprehension. Milton describes the host of angels under the leadership of Satan who revolted against god. ‘The stars’ can be taken as the rebel angels. The first two lines in this stanza refer to the fall of angels as described by John Milton in his Paradise Lost.

          They, astonished, all resistance lost,

          All courage, down their weapons dropt.

The rebel angels were driven to hell. They watered heaven with their tears.

The poet says that when God created the tiger, the stars (here means Satan and his followers) which were in war with Him were so frightened by its (Tiger’s) sight that they accepted their defeat and threw down their weapons and made the sky wet with their tears.

In the third line, the poet asks if God smiled with satisfaction after creating the Tiger, as it was beyond words for Satanic forces. It’s amazing that the same creator created the lamb and tiger. Lamb is quite innocent and meek while the tiger is ferocious and merciless.

Stanza 6

 Tyger Tyger burning bright, 

In the forests of the night: 

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

The final stanza is a repetition of the first one. The only word changing here is ‘dare’ instead of ‘could’ which is quite significant. In the first stanza, the poet seems to be less amazed by the powers of tiger and God but after going through all the features of the tiger he wonders it is only God who can dare to create such an animal.

 

Poetic Devices used in ‘The Tyger’

Blake used carefully measured and chosen vocabulary in this poem. He also used several poetic techniques in these lines. Let’s examine them.

  1.  Anaphora: The term anaphora refers to a poetic technique in which successive phrases or lines get repeated. The repetition can be as simple as a single word or as long as an entire phrase.

             Eg: Tyger, tyger…

 

  2.  Refrain: Refrain in poetry is a repeated part of a poem that  appears either at the end of a stanza or between two stanzas. It can be a verse, a line, a set or a group of lines. [Here the first stanza repeated at the end of the poem]

 

  3.  Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the same letter sound across the start of several words in a line of text. [burning bright, frame thy fearful]

  4.   Rhetorical Question: Rhetorical questions are asked to create a dramatic effect, rather than to get an answer

 In the third line, the poet raises a rhetorical question,   what immortal hand or eye that is capable of framing or building its  fearful symmetry.

  5.  Allusion: An allusion is a reference, typically brief, to a person, place, thing, event, or other literary work with which the reader is presumably familiar.

On what wings dare he aspire?

This may be a reference to Icarus in Greek mythology who perished by flying too near the Sun with his waxen wings.

 

“What the hand dare seize the fire” refers to Prometheus from Greek mythology who was punished for stealing fire for mankind.