The Bible states, “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:16). William Blake wrote poems about this very subject. In his twin poems, “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”, Blake uses different literary techniques such as sound, imagery and symbolism to echo the common theme of creation along with how it is viewed differently. William Blake’s use of sound in his poems, “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”, enhance the central idea of creation and the question of how one God can create such different creatures. Both poems are similar in how they have rhyming couplets, a lot of repetition, alliteration and assonance however, they are very different in a few ways. One is structured in …show more content…
This is shown with his use of imagery as well. Imagery used in “The Lamb” is very beautiful, natural and peaceful which is a stark contrast to the dark fearful imagery seen in “The Tyger”. “Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost, thou know who made thee?” (Lines 9-10). “Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee: He is called by thy name” (Lines 12-13). In the poem “The Lamb”, Blake paints a sweet, innocent image of a loving and kind God. This poem is full of child-like wonder as the speaker questions and answers who the lamb’s creator is. The nostalgic feel continues as he states, “By the stream and o'er the mead; Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing, wooly, bright; Gave thee such a tender voice” (Lines 4-7). These words and ideas leave the reader with a warm, comforted feeling. The image of untouched nature, green pastures and a soft, little, white, baby lamb is quite different to the imagery Blake uses in “The Tyger”. The overall feel of “The Lamb” is beautiful and tender as Blake describes the lamb in such ways that are gentle, delicate and alluring. In his poem, “The Tyger”, Blake creates a dark, scary picture of a powerful, ferocious creature that is not meek or mild like the lamb. Instead, he states, “What immortal hand or eye, Burnt the fire of thine eyes? Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” (Lines 2-14). “What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp dare its deadly terrors clasp?” (Lines 13-16). These
One of William Blake great poems, The Tyger” is well known as one or perhaps
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).
In “The Lamb” by William Blake, you will see that, if analyzed closely, the lamb is a personal symbol which signifies God himself. The innocence of a child is like that of a lamb, and serves as a model for humans to follow. In the first stanza, the speaker is the child who is also the teacher. The child asks the lamb who gave him life and all his needs, along with a voice so "tender”. Then, the child declares that he will tell the lamb who their creator is. The creator shares the same name as the lamb, which is a reference to Jesus Christ. The end of the poem is giving way to a blessing which, gives an expression of the child’s adoration at the connection the lamb makes in child,
William Blake’s 1793 poem “The Tyger” has many interpretations, but its main purpose is to question God as a creator. Its poetic techniques generate a vivid picture that encourages the reader to see the Tyger as a horrifying and terrible being. The speaker addresses the question of whether or not the same God who made the lamb, a gentle creature, could have also formed the Tyger and all its darkness. This issue is addressed through many poetic devices including rhyme, repetition, allusion, and symbolism, all of which show up throughout the poem and are combined to create a strong image of the Tyger and a less than thorough interpretation of its maker.
In the poem “The Tyger” by William Blake, the use of rhyme, repetition, allusion, and symbolism all help the reader understand the theme and what was going through the authors thoughts while writing. William Blake was a mystic poet who channeled his thoughts and questions to write poems. He questioned the creator of both the Tyger and lamb, how could the same God create a destructive creature like the Tyger and on the other hand create a gentle animal, the lamb. This ties into the theme of the poem of how a God could and would create a monster like the Tyger.
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 .
“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,
In order to exist in nature and in human, innocence requires experience. The author, William Blake divided his poems into two volumes which are Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. “The Lamb” is the poem from Songs of Innocence and “The Tyger” is from Songs of Experience. In “The Lamb,” Blake writes in an incomplex, childlike way asking an innocent lamb who made it. In “The Tyger,” Blake asks who could have possibly made something as formidable as the tiger. William Blake uses archetypes in his poems “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.”
Being one of the most influential poets during the Romantic Period, the religious status of Blake has long been as controversial as his own literary works. Nonetheless, the fact that he is indeed a Christian is doubtless - such can be easily illustrated from many fragments of his works such as ‘I a child, and thou a lamb, We are called by His name. Little Lamb, God Bless thee! Little Lamb, God Bless thee!’ from his poem The Lamb. This singsongy excerpt from the Song of Innocence not only appears to readers as Blake’s direct praises of God but also an evident reference to ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’(Eg. Psalm 23) from the Holy Bible. However, it can also be easily argued that Blake is not an ordinary, churchgoing Christian. A great portion
In this poem, innocence is represented by the lamb. The poem, in its entirety, uses childlike techniques and a soft, defenseless animal as his archetype to show innocence. The poem uses repetition and simple words to declare its purpose. These points are shown when William blake states, “Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee.” (Page 748 Line 1) The archetypes in this poem represent the idea of innocence. The idea of innocence comes from Blake’s Songs of innocence and songs of experience.
God made Jesus and Jesus made us human. In the poem “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” author William Blake uses Imagery to show the human soul and to show us the innocent and experience of the humans soul. In the Poem “The Tyger” is asking question like who made you? from line 1-4, where you were made?
The Lamb was written by the famous English writer William Blake. William Blake was an English writer from London who had very strong Christian beliefs that influenced his writings. Many of Blake’s poems had to do with his beliefs and views of God and Jesus. He published two famous book called “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experiences”, where he describes life in the eyes of the innocent and of the experienced. In 1789 Blake published The Lamb in Songs of Innocence. I was very pleased when I first read The Lamb because it was an easy poem that just gives you a relaxing feeling. It also relates to many of my personal views of God and his son Jesus Christ.
Blake uses traditional symbols of angels and devils, animal imagery, and especially images of fire and flame to: 1) set up a dual world, a confrontation of opposites or "contraries" which illustrate how the rules of Reason and Religion repress and pervert the basic creative energy of humanity, 2) argues for apocalyptic transformation of the self "through the radical regeneration of each person's own power to imagine" (Johnson/Grant, xxiv), and 3) reconstructs Man in a new image, a fully realized Man who is both rational and imaginative, partaking of his divinity through creativity. The form of the poem consists of "The Argument," expositions on his concepts of the "contraries" and of "expanded perception" which are both interspersed with "Memorable Fancies" that explicate and enlarge on his expositions, and concludes with "A Song of Liberty," a prophecy of a future heaven on earth.
is a representation of the relationship between creator and creature. This poem may be one of his more popular poems from The Songs of Experience. In the poem, Blake writes about how the Tyger was created by the same immortal being who created the sheep. In this case, Blake is referring to God creating both good and evil in the world. Blake depicts this by this excerpt from the poem, ?the contrast between fire and night ? [which] corresponds to the contrast of yellow and black stripes ringing the Tyger itself [sic].?8 John E. Grant comments that William Blake?s poem is ? ? horrifying, as well as awesome, to think of an animate thing being hammered into shape in the smith.?9 Through this statement, Grant is referring to the creation of Tyger and the rest of humanity by God. The hammer merely being an instrument of creation.10 It is strange how much Blake speaks of God and creation as a whole, as he was not religious or a believer in one God, creator of the
The lamb and the Tyger are two different poems, but they share the same author and that is “William Blake, the first one is the lamb it was published in Songs of Innocence in 1789 it discusses who created it. Correspondingly, it talks about religion and believing in god Furthermore, the lamb is a metaphor for Jesus Christ, also the lamb is symbolic of suffering innocence and Jesus Christ. Also the Lamb is the corresponding poem to Blake's poem" The Tyger. Was published 1794 as. Part of the Songs of Experience . The tyger symbolized God's power in creation and many people liked this poem for instance: The Cambridge Companion to William Blake says it is "the most anthologized poem in English." The two books were distributed together under