Many poems written by the same author often have similar themes. The authors usually believe in something very strongly and their poems usually reflect such a nature. Sometimes poets reflect aspects of their personal life in their poems. In the poems "The Lamb" and "The Tiger", by William Blake, the poet discusses similar themes in both. In the poem "The Lamb", I interpret that William Blake discusses many points questioning creation and religion. He describes the lamb as being an object of innocence and fragility when he says "Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing, woolly, bright; Gave thee such a tender voice" (line 5). "Blake develops an elaborate personal mythology that underlies virtually all symbolism and ideas in his work." (Shilstone, p.223) Blake discusses that the creator of the lamb is also calls Himself a Lamb. With this he brings religious significance into the poem. It the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth is referred as God's Lamb. There are a few themes developed in "The Lamb." Blake describes the lamb as symbol of childhood innocence. He also questions about how the lamb was brought into existence, which mentions another theme of divine intervention and how all creatures were created. The poem is nothing but one wondering question to another (Harmon, p. 361). "The Tiger" by William Blake describes the tiger as being an symbol of evil. This is displayed when Blake says "What an anvil? what dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp?" By repeating variations of the word "dread" in the poem, he emphasizes the evil of tiger and the evil this tiger possesses. The mighty beast is whole world of experience outside ourselves, a world of igneous creation and destruction, faced with a terrifying beauty (Harmon, p.360). This poem also contains the theme of creation in that it also mentions the Lamb. The narrator questions, "Did he who make the Lamb make thee?" (line 20) Both poems contain many similarities according to their themes. "The Tiger" was taken from a collection of poems by Blake called The Songs of Experience. These poems focus on evil and the importance of understanding the evil around in hope of attaining a state of innocence. "In The Songs of Innocence Blake suggests that by recapturing the imagination and wonderment of childhood, we could achieve the goal of self-awareness... the poems thus present views of the world as filtered through the eyes and mind of a child.
In the poem, "The Lamb," Blake uses imagery to explain the way the, "Little Lamb" (Line 1), looks like.
The Hate of Tyranny and Celebration of Liberty in William Blake's Poetry William Blake was born in 1757, during a period of great change in western political ideas. The poor had begun to realise that they did not have to live as serfs under the rich, and were breaking free of these old bonds, The main examples of this being The French revolution in 1792 and the American Revolution in 1775, both now considered as some of the most important events in history. Blake was a great supporter of these movements, and believed that the same should happen in England. This is why many of the Aristocracy at the time considered Blake a threat to their comfortable way of life.
For those living during the eighteenth-century, life was full of innovation and the reconstruction of social classes and societal norms. With the tumultuous effects of the American and French Revolution’s on the world and the Industrial Revolution in their own city, London became fertile soil for a new literary movement to flourish in . The Romantic era invoked in art, literature, and philosophy, a more aesthetic experience. Artist and poet, William Blake, not only lived through this time of great social change, but was an important contributor to the Romantic literary movement that occurred in his lifetime. William Blake uses his intuitive spirituality and artistic skills that he acquired throughout the early years of his life to write about important principles of the human condition and inherent nature of mankind in his works, namely “A Poison Tree”; his simplistic writing style and use of imagery allows his blunt and unflattering religious message to be universally understood and categorizes him as a seminal figure of the romantic era.
godly misery. But it could also be the pain of the people as not only
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.
A man of many talents, William Blake adds to the incredible lists of poets. Blake was not acknowledged for his poetic works until after his death. William Blake is known as one of England’s greatest poets of our time. As a young man Blake had an immense amount of accomplishments. His natural aptitudes continued throughout his life. Blake’s life, poems, and passions of life created an engrossed life.
The Romantic period brought a new outlook on how people viewed the world. The fight for individual rights was a major cause for the sudden change. There were too many rules that held people back from being able to express themselves. Once they began to broaden their ideas and practice new motives whether it was political, or emotional, it brought freedom of expression. Many poets took the chance to enlighten their readers on their works. They would write in order to paint a picture and gave more detailed descriptions of the conscious mind. For these poets it brought many people to enjoy their freedom of speech and encouraged a new way of thinking.
William Blake focused on biblical images in the majority of his poetry and prose. Much of his well-known work comes from the two compilations Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The poems in these compilations reflect Blake's metamorphosis in thought as he grew from innocent to experienced. An example of this metamorphosis is the two poems The Divine Image and A Divine Image. The former preceded the latter by one year.
Within Blake's work The Lamb starts off by asking a little lamb who had made thee. Asking how gave you life, and how had fed you. By asking these questions to the lamb the boy questions how a lamb came into existence in this realm. "Then the boy tells the lamb that he is called by thys name since he calls himself a lamb"(Foundation). Then after that the boy realizes that the lamb was created by God. As this is read a sense of a childlike innocence that the creator is a source of gentleness, selflessness, and love. This idea is expressed by the symbol of a lamb, for being the most gentle creation.
During the British Romantic period, some writers used material from the Bible or imitated the Bible in style of writing or content. William Blake, a Romantic writer, engraver, and painter, believed that “the Bible was the greatest work of poetry ever written” (Barker 2004). The Bible influenced him throughout this life, specifically influencing both his writing and his art. There are many references to Biblical themes within his writing, and there are also many references to specific passages of Scripture (Barker 2004).
The theme of authority is possibly the most important theme and the most popular theme concerning William Blake’s poetry. Blake explores authority in a variety of different ways particularly through religion, education and God. Blake was profoundly concerned with the concept of social justice. He was also profoundly a religious man. His dissenting background led him to view the power structures and legalism that surrounded religious establishments with distrust. He saw these as unwarranted controls over the freedom of the individual and contrary to the nature of a God of liberty. Figures such as the school master in the ‘schoolboy’, the parents in the ‘chimney sweeper’ poems, the guardians of the poor in the ‘Holy Thursday’, Ona’s father in ‘A Little girl lost’ and the priestly representatives of organised religion in many of the poems, are for Blake the embodiment of evil restriction.
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.
The cruel child laboring of sweeping chimneys in the late 1700s stirred many emotions through William Blake’s poetic work. His two poems both named, The Chimney Sweeper, expressed a creative perspective on children sweeping chimneys. Both the first and second poems contained similar poetic techniques to convey a similar meaning, but also contrasted in poetic techniques to portray different perspectives of children who were forced to endure the risky job.
Frighteningly beautiful and destructive, Blake’s tiger becomes the main symbol for his questions into the presence of evil in the world. For example, The reference to the lamb in the final stanza, “ Did he who made the lamb make thee?” reminds the reader that a tiger and a lamb have been created by the same God, and raises questions about the implications of this. Is there a purpose beh...
Sociological criticism emphasizes the political, economic, and cultural aspects of literature, and one of its main focuses is evaluating writing from a Marxist perspective, which examines the writing in mostly political and economic fashion, including ideas such as communism and social inequality. The idea of class oppression is clearly represented in many of William Blake’s writings. Blake’s opposition to the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists is obvious in many of his poems. Blake’s ideology of an equalitarian society could be described in the sayings of Karl Marx. Marxist criticism explains the reasons behind Blake’s anger towards social inequality. Poems like “The Chimney Sweeper” and “London” illustrate Blake’s despairing sadness towards the phenomena produced by the unjust inequality in 18th century England. In “The Chimney Sweeper,” Blake expresses his anger at the late 18th and 19th century's use of child labor in urban England. In “London,” Blake illustrates the depressing class oppression that could be easily seen through the streets of London.