Essay of Comparison between The Tiger and The Lamb, poems by William Blake

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Essay of Comparison between The Tiger and The Lamb, poems by William Blake

"The Tiger" and "The Lamb" were poems by William Blake, a poet who

lived in the 18th century. In this essay I am going to compare the two

poems and examine links between them relating to rhymes, patterns and

words used.

Blake's background relates on the poems he wrote, and many of his

works reflected his early home life. Blake in his childhood was an

outcast, a loner, and didn't have many friends. His family believed

very strongly in God and were extremely pious Christians but did not

agree with the teachings of the church, so young William Blake often

was made to think about God and his teachings during his studies.

Because his parents were rebels against the Church of England, and

most schools were affiliated with the Church in those days, Blake was

made to find education somewhere else. He was educated from home by

his parents, a practise not done much nowadays.

Blake found he had a lot of free time to think about his many ideas,

his poetry, life and the like, and also found that he had a very

strong imagination. In his poems, many biblical and religious

undertones are found as he often wove double meanings into his works.

By the time he was an adult his active imagination allowed him to

create vivid poetry and paintings, like the paintings that have

recently been displayed at the National Gallery. Blake's most famous

books of poems are entitled "Songs of Experience" and "Songs of

Innocence", and the two most famous poems from these two books are the

ones I am comparing in this essay. Poems from the "Songs of

Experience" are all about the type of God who brought all the evil and

suffering into the world, the vengeful God w...

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Industrial Revolution troubles) and would not have the time or money

to take a trip into the countryside. So it too is like a dream, and a

fantasy, and it is also a sign of hope and peace, because in those

days the industrial revolution was taking place and fields and open

space would be disappearing. In its place would be smoggy factories,

slum towns and waste tips. This imagery by Blake I find is very

effective in also making us remember the conditions most people (but

not Blake) had to live in back in those days.

"The Lamb" is obviously a poem of questions - the main difference form

"The Tiger" being that "The Lamb" provides the answers for the reader

and the metaphorical lamb in the second verse, whilst the latter's

questions remain unanswered. I personally feel that the poem is asking

one main question that is "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"

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