William Blake’s “The Lamb”
“The Lamb,” by William Blake, is from Blake’s Songs of Innocence. Through symbolism of Jesus Christ, rhetorical questions that resemble a catechism, and diction, Blake creates a poem that addresses Christian faith and attempts to answer the question as to “How did we get here?”
The poem is made up of two stanzas, each containing rhyming couplets. This gives it a song-like quality, like a song a small child would sing. It is simple and easy to remember. The repetition of l’s and vowel sounds contribute to this effect, and also suggest the sound a lamb makes or the voice of a child. For instance, words like “little,” delight,” “wooly,” and “tell” all include these factors. The format of the poem also closely resembles a catechism. A catechism is a summary of the principles of Christian religion in the form of questions and answers, used for the instruction of Christians. For instance, in the beginning of the poem, the young boy asks the lamb a question. Then, in the second stanza, an answer is given.
The poem begins with the questions, “Little Lamb who made thee?/Dost thou know who made thee?” (lines 1-2). The first question sounds simple and straightforward. The speaker is simply asking the “lamb” who is responsible for it being there. However, as simple as the question seems, it is addressing a philosophical and religious issue that humans have been debating upon since we first walked the earth. “How did we come to be and did someone create us?” The first thing that should be examined though is the lamb. What does it represent? The answer is Jesus Christ. Jesus has been viewed as a lamb and Christians have as well. The image of the child is also associated with Jesus. In the Bible, it tells how Jesu...
... middle of paper ...
...eed a child speaking to a lamb. This image gives a sense of naïveté and innocence. He is playing with a lamb and is teaching the lamb the belief in a God. This is probably something that was taught to him, the child by his parents. Everyone in this poem can be viewed as lambs: the child (or speaker), the actual lamb, and Jesus.
William Blake, in “The Lamb,” creates a sense of innocence through a young boy, a lamb, and the boy’s belief in God and Christian teachings. The poem, in its format, is simple and easy to read, but its underlying meanings run much deeper than what first appears. William Blake, takes the day to day activities of a lamb and connects it with symbolism of Jesus Christ. By using rhetorical questions, the speaker creates a sort of catechism in which the existence of both a young boy and a lamb are proof of a higher power, specifically God.
No
In the poem there are sheep and goats which in comparison are followers of god and non followers. The sheep represented people who were loyal to god, who always led the right road and if they so much sinned, they would ask god for forgiveness. Goats were people who did not have faith
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."
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.
The first give-aways are the vocabulary of the poems. In the first of the two, Blake talks simply so that it is easy to understand, including some lines being just flat-out repeated. In the beginning of the poem, the narrator states “Little Lamb who made thee/ do you know who made you?” Through this, the narrator presents a simple question which is one of curiosity and kindnesss toward the lamb. Blake co...
Blake, William. The. “The Lamb.” Poetry Foundation. Web.
The poem begins with the speaker addressing God as “Our Father who art in heaven” (1.1). If this prayer is a metaphor for writing, it would seem that the he is actually speaking to the audience, the group of people who will ultimately judge his writing and his ideas. The casual nature of the prayer is partly based on the fact that the speaker is admittedly drunk on red wine, but also because the writer is trying to establish a relationship with his audience: A rapport with his readers is important to a writer’s success. He thanks his readers for the red wine, because it is they who have made it possible for him to maintain a lifestyle wherein he can afford the wine, and this wine acts as the liquid courage he needs to write in the first place.
In the poem, "The Lamb," from Songs of Innocence, William Blake asks the little lamb, "Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?" (1351). It is here where the author purposely questions the reader and leaves the reader, wandering for an answer to that precise question. The author then continues by leading the reader to an indirect possible answer to his question by saying "Little Lamb I'll tell thee! / He is called by thy name, / For he calls himself a Lamb" and proceeds a line later with "He became a little child; / I a child & thou a lamb." It is apparent that he doesn't exactly give a direct answer. He mentions in an roundabout way that the lamb's creator calls himself a Lamb and that he became a little child. This vague background provides an idea who the creator actually is, but not enough to somehow match the creator with God from the biblical texts. And, since the information is vague, the reader really can't come to a narrowed conclusion because the answer itself depends on the reader's beliefs and experiences and so therefore leaves the true answer to the question still unanswered.
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.
Grace's poem confused me and some part did not make any sense to me so
Hughes use the work of Symbolism to get readers attention. “Lamb of God” means the child of god as the mourners think that they will be saved so they gave them the name that the they are the child of god because after a
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.
Blake is saying to the lamb, I'll tell you who made you, and it is
giving the tiger an even more awe-inspiring quality. The stanza finishes with "Did he who made the lamb make thee?" Which gives the idea of disbelief at the prospect of a creator making a harmless pleasant creature such as the lamb and a dangerous mighty and awful creature like the tiger. b) Explore the ways Blake uses imagery and repetition in this poem. The most obvious repetition in this poem is the "Tiger"!
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.
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.