William Blake was born and raised in London from 1757 to 1827. Throughout his early years, Blake experienced many strange and unusual visions, claiming to have seen “angels and ghostly monks” (Moore). For those reasons, William Blake decided to write about mystical beings and Gods. Two examples of the poet expressing his point of view are seen in “The Tyger” and “The Lamb.” Both poems demonstrate how the world is and to sharpen one’s perception. People perceive the world in their own outlook, often times judging things before they even know the deeper meaning of its inner personification. Blake’s wondrous questions actually make an acceptable point because he questions whether God created the tiger with the same intentions as he did with the lamb.
In “The Lamb,” the speaker asks the lamb about how it was made, the clothing of its wool and its “tender voice.” The speaker then answers its own question and bestows the blessing of the lamb. The Lamb can symbolize a child, innocence, meek, or vulnerability. Also, it can be perceived as Jesus. “The lamb is also a metaphor for the child speaker, who belongs to Christ's ‘flock.’ In Christianity, Jesus is compared both to a lamb going to the sacrifice and to a shepherd who protects his flock of lambs and sheep” (Shmoop). At the beginning of this poem, it starts out with the question of “Little Lamb, who made thee… I a child and thou a lamb” (Line 1, 17). It refers to the saying in the Bible, “…in the beginning when god created the heavens and the earth. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind” (Mazur). The narrator only calls himself a child because we are all “children of god” as many say. In line 18, “We are called by his name,” reinforces the idea that the lamb...
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...ons. He shows everyone the meaning of the world that lies ahead of them, and the different ways to approach them. Blake effectively displays the different perspectives of man's path in life by his use of contrasting figures and the symbolism it conveys. The tiger may represent man's original state of sin and the qualities that portray it while the lamb symbolizes the innocence and purity brought along with its creation. Everyone’s knowledge is symbolic.
Works Cited
"Bible Stories: A Sociologist Looks at Implausible Beliefs in Genesis." Ed. Allan Mazur. Web.
The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed. Michael Meyer. Print.
Liukkonen, Petri. "William Blake (1757-1827)." Web.
Moore, Andrew. "Poems by William Blake-study guide." Web.
Shmoop. "The Lamb." Web.
"The Tiger." Ed. Cummings. Web.
"Welcome to Nimbi and William Blake Poetry." Web.
This association emphasizes her Christ-like nature – like Jesus, she is a "lamb of God," an innocent being sacrificed. The three-fold association of children, lambs, and Christ was immediate and obvious in 19th century culture – as in William Blake’s poem "The Lamb."
In the first stanza “The Lamb”, opens with "Little Lamb, who made thee?" A child is most likely the speaker and asks the lamb how it came to be. The speaker wants to know how the lamb chooses where it feeds. Next, the speaker asks where the lamb got its’ wool "clothing" and its’ "tender voice" from. In the next stanza, the speaker tries to answer his own question. The speaker tells us that the lamb was made by someone who is called “a Lamb". The creator is a lot like a lamb. He is seen as gentle and pure, just like the speaker, a child, and a lamb.
As for artistic allusions, Blake’s reference to Icarus, “On what wings dare he aspire?” compares to a human man who attempted to break free from his human limitations by making wings of wax, which melted as he flew close to the sun. The line, “What the hand dare seize the fire?” is symbolizing the c...
In Blake’s work “The Lamb,” he shows innocence through sheep and their nature. Blake describes sheep’s nature by saying that they “Feed/By the stream & o'er the mead/ have thee clothing of delight/ Softest clothing, wooly, bright” (Blake 4-6). This passage shows that sheep are providers to man and show no harm. Blake says that sheep has a, “tender voice/ making all the vales rejoice?” (Blake 7-8). Blake makes sheep seem to have a joyful emotion and wants to share it with others. The sheep has a tender voice which means it is not intimidating. Natoli, who is the author of the novel William Blake, says that,
Both of the questions being asked by Blake in each stanza are congruent with the five worldview questions. The five worldview questions are as follows: Who is God?, Who am I?, What’s the problem?, What’s the solution?, and Where are we going?. Furthermore, throughout the entire poem, each stanza asks a worldview question. So when Blake asks certain questions about the Tiger such as “What the hand, dare seize the fire?” (Blake 1) he is actually asking the reader; moreover, each question questions the reader’s thinking of religion. This consequently ties in with the major theme of the poem which is
William Blake is remembered by his poetry, engravements, printmaking, and paintings. He was born in Soho, London, Great Britain on November 28, 1757. William was the third of seven siblings, which two of them died from infancy. As a kid he didn’t attend school, instead he was homeschooled by his mother. His mother thought him to read and write. As a little boy he was always different. Most kids of his age were going to school, hanging out with friends, or just simply playing. While William was getting visions of unusual things. At the age of four he had a vision of god and when he was nine he had another vision of angles on trees.
In "The Lamb," Blake utilizes the image of the sheep to paint a picture of guiltlessness. The sheep is an image of Jesus Christ. The sheep is additionally an image of life. It furnishes people with nourishment, dress, and different things people need to survive. The line "For he calls himself a Lamb" is a line that Jesus himself has utilized (Blake 538). A sheep is an exceptionally accommodating and gentle animal, which could be the reason Blake decided to utilize this creature to depict God's giving side. He even alludes to God as being resigned and mellow in line fifteen: "He is docile, and he is gentle." Blake needs to show his followers that God is wrathful yet a pardoned and adoring inventor.
This essay provides a Reader-Response based analysis of William Blake’s “The Tyger.” Following a brief overview of Reader-Response theory, where the subjects of the reader serve to give meaning to text, the essay begins focusing on the contradiction and the division that lives within the tiger itself. Blake’s “Tyger” is simultaneously a beautiful and ferocious creature. From this, the essay moves forward by examining the multiple references to symmetry made by Blake in “The Tyger,” and proposes that these are an overall collection that contains many of the tiger’s contradictions. Moving forward, the essay proposes, within the context of a secondary literature that debates the realism of Blake’s portrayal of the tiger, that while Blake does not represent an accurate tiger in his poem, this is largely irrelevant as the work is focused not on the tiger as an actual animal, but rather on the tiger as a myth of nature. With all of the above in mind, the essay concludes by noting that “The Tyger” is especially open to Reader-Response analyses because of its open-ended portrayal of the tiger as well as its openness to divergent interpretations.
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.
Although Blake’s poem The Tyger revolved around the idea of a ferocious mammal, its illustration of a sheepish tiger complicates and alters Blake’s message in the poem by suggesting that good and evil simultaneously exist. Upon first reading the poem, without any influence from the illustration, the consistent use of harsh imagery paints an animal that is both fearful and wild. Creating an extended metaphor between the creator and a blacksmith, Blake poses the question “What is the hammer? What the chain, in what furnace was thy brain?
In the second stanza the speaker restates the question, then proudly the speaker declares, “Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,/ Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!/” (Blake lines 11-12). Allusions to Christianity blossom in the poem at this point as the speaker states that the creator of this lamb is called by the same name. In Christianity, Jesus Christ is referred to as the lamb of God and/or the Sheppard, His followers are also referred to as His flock. The speaker then proceeds to state that he and the lamb are one and the same, ending the poem with “Little Lamb God bless thee./ Little Lamb God bless thee./(Blake lines 19-20) this invokes reassurance in the reader.
How did Blake depict the tiger in this poem? At the very start of the poem it is clear in what way Blake wishes to portray the tiger in the picture. The first words he uses - "Tiger!" Tiger. is an aggressive start to the poem, thus implying that Blake is trying to put the tiger across as an aggressive animal.
In conclusion these two poems by William Blake are both deep and have hidden meanings, they both use imagery, repetition, alliteration and ryming couplets as well as biblical references to create a vivid pictures in the readers head. But these poems do differ in many ways such as the structure, theme and way it is written. The Tyger appeals to me most as it has more hidden meanings than the Lamb and the Lamb is boring and as if written by a child (for effect). In this essay I have analysed, contrasted and compared the two poems The Tyger and The Lamb to the best of my ability detailing the poetic devices used and the underlying meanings.
The sublime is the feeling of delightful horror associated with powerful, large objects that produce both a feeling of awe and fear. Blake alludes to the “fearful symmetry” (4) of the Tyger in order to create the sublime feeling that the creature is both daunting but exquisite. The sublime quality develops further when Blake asks “What dread hand? & what dread feet?” (12). Implementing the word “dread” adds to the frightening tone of the poem, creating a sense of wonder and mystery that derives from the sublime. Blake uses the sublime notion to allow the readers to process the enormity of both the Tyger and its creator, helping develop the poet’s main question; what “immortal hand or eye” (3) could be so powerful to create a formidable creature like the Tyger? The poem “The Tyger” is complexified by the unusual spelling Blake chose for the word “tiger”. The purpose of the alternative spelling is to enhance the complexity of divine creation, Blake’s main concern throughout the poem. The spelling of “Tyger” is also employed to suggest to the reader that the Tyger discussed in the poem is a different, darker beast than the jungle tiger. Humanity, the devil, or sinful actions themselves could all be argued as the “Tyger” Blake refers to. Blake himself does not explain why he misspelled the word, adding to the unanswered questions, which the entire poem consists of,
In the poem, Lamb's divine nature is not initially revealed, but is gradually revealed. exposed by the time the reader has completed the second stanza. William Blake's main focus of "The Lamb" is to convey the basics. assertions made by Christianity. The child is rhetorical.