Comparison of The Lamb and The Tyger by William Blake

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When do we change? When do we change from being the innocent children God sent into the world, to the corrupted ones that leave the earth? William Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience examine these different states. Blake wanted to show the two contrary states in the human mind. The Lamb and the Tyger are just vehicles for Blake to express what he feels happens to people as they grow, develop and eventually become perverted by the world around them.

Blake’s background and occupation greatly influenced the style and content of his poems. He lived during the 18th Century when the church was beginning to lose its grip on British society; science was rising up against the church. Blake was part of a group known as the Romantics. He began to challenge the church believing that an individual could discover God without going to church. His poems ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’ reflect this, as he is telling how God created these two animals and on another level how he created humanity.

‘We are called by his name’ (The Lamb)

The message that Blake is trying to convey in this line is that it is God who calls us to discover him. He is saying that no one else has the power to tell you what to believe not even the church. God and the individual are the only ones privy to this ultimate power!

His role as an engraver and artist is reflected in the details he gives about the two animals. In The Tyger he describes it as, ‘burning bright.’ He is describing it from a painter’s perspective in the way he is talking of the tiger’s colouring.

At the time Blake was writing The Lamb the French Revolution was taking place. Blake was very supportive of the revolution, as he was deeply concerned about the poor social, economic and political ...

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...is and see them as

normal. It is then that people change from being the untainted

children God sent to earth to the corrupted adults that leave it.

Works Cited

Blake, William. “The Tyger.” The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Ed. David Damrosch and et al. 2nd ed, Volume 2A. New York: Longman, 2003.

Blake, William. "The Lamb." The Harbrace Anthology of Poetry. 3rd ed. Ed. Jon C. Stott, Raymond E. Jones, and Rick Bowers. Toronto: Nelson, 2002. 97

Internet Sources Consulted

Blake, William. The Tyger. Songs of Innocence and of Experience. DjVu Editions E-Books, 2001. Web 7 may 2015.

Blake, William. The Lamb. Songs of Innocence and of Experience. DjVu Editions E-Books, 2001. Web 7 may 2015.

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