Reading Between the Lines Essays

Persona is an important concept in these poems. "The Lamb" could be read as a nursery rhyme to little children. The persona of this poem is one of a little child talking to a lamb. The persona of "The Lamb" is shown in line seventeen, "I a child, and thou a lamb." The persona helps Blake to show that God made such a harmless creature like the lamb and such a pure child. The reader knows that God made both these creatures because the line "Little Lamb, who made thee?"(Blake 538) is repeated throughout the poem. The child is a symbol of purity so that is why Blake chose to use a child as the persona rather than a grown up. The child is describing to the lamb who made him: We know this because in the second

In “The Lamb” by William Blake, you will see that, if analyzed closely, the lamb is a personal symbol which signifies God himself. The innocence of a child is like that of a lamb, and serves as a model for humans to follow. In the first stanza, the speaker is the child who is also the teacher. The child asks the lamb who gave him life and all his needs, along with a voice so "tender”. Then, the child declares that he will tell the lamb who their creator is. The creator shares the same name as the lamb, which is a reference to Jesus Christ. The end of the poem is giving way to a blessing which, gives an expression of the child’s adoration at the connection the lamb makes in child,

Just like the “lamb” that was born into this world through a virgin and was sacrificed for all mankind, this same “lamb” made us and called us by his name. In his poem "The Lamb," William Blake clearly uses repetition, personification, and symbolism to describe his religious beliefs and how a pure sacrifice is portrayed by a little lamb. Laura Quinney’s book, “William Blake on Self and Soul,” shows the religious side of Blake when it says, “Blake makes this argument in his address “To the Deists,” where he insists “Man must & will have Some Religion; if he has not the Religion of Jesus, he will have the Religion of Satan” (Quinney, 2009). Blake uses his religious view to show us he believes that our creator is the Lamb of God. He distinctively uses the innocence and purity of a little lamb and how its creator clearly takes care of it. The lamb is fed, given water by the stream and a bidden a blessed life.

Thesis Statement: The Lamb written by William Blake is a beautiful spiritually enriched poem that expresses God’s sovereignity, His love for creation and His gentleness in care and provisions for those that are His .

Many people are viewed by their actions in life. Most would believe to be born pure and innocent. William Blake wrote a poem called, “The Lamb” which told the message that jesus created an sweet, gentle animal. The lamb symbolizes purity and innocence. The archetype means the people who consider themselves like a lamb are followers not leaders.

only three short stanzas. By keeping it short he also allows the reader to interpret the poem

The Christ depicted in this passage willingly accepts his battle on the cross and because of this act the poet then goes on to describe Christ as a "warrior", "strong," and "stouthearted." Christ is not portrayed as a meek and humble man resigned to his task as savior and lord. Within this portion of the text, he becomes a bold warrior climbing the cross as if going into battle. At the end of the poem, the narrator looks to Christ and the cross for protection.

Throughout “Innocence” there are many references to “The Lamb” representing Jesus Christ who was the Sacrificial Lamb, as shown in the poem “The Lamb.” Another common image of religion used by Blake is that of religion as the Shepherd, the Shepherd is “watchful” and ever watching over his sheep, protecting them, Blake is showing religion as

Blake begins the poem by stating that it is not possible to love another as much as yourself, and that thought is the highest of all human functions. This sets the stage for Blake's attack on religion's ideas of hierarchy and condemnation of rational thought. The next stanza describes the boy asking God, indicated by the capitalized "Father," how he could love him or another human more than a little bird picking up crumbs. The boy states that he loves God in and as much as a little bird. This echoes the naturalist ideas supported in the aforementioned poems. Blake seems to be saying that the proper way to worship and commune with God is by loving all natural beings, human and non-human. The priest, a symbol of organized religion that Blake so sharply critiques, overhears what the boy is saying and is infuriated by the idea that a person could worship God through nature, without ritual, politics, or human involvement, and that the boy dares use his mind to question what he has been taught. The priest makes the boy a martyr, preaching from his high pedestal of pomposity, and burns the boy, despite the cries of his family. The boy's curiosity and natural thinking have been squelched, and his imagination bound in iron chains. Blake closes the poem by asking if such

Because the poem is long, it won’t be quoted extensively here, but it is attached at the end of the paper for ease of reference. Instead, the paper will analyze the poetic elements in the work, stanza by stanza. First, because the poem is being read on-line, it’s not possible to say for certain that each stanza is a particular number of lines long. Each of several versions looks different on the screen; that is, there is no pattern to the number of lines in each stanza. However, the stanzas are more like paragraphs in a letter than

The poem begins with two lines which are repeated throughout the poem which convey what the narrator is thinking, they represent the voice in

Blake's poems of innocence and experience are a reflection of Heaven and Hell. The innocence in Blake's earlier poems represents the people who will get into Heaven. They do not feel the emotions of anger and

The Lamb' begins by a child asking the lamb if it knows who made it. The fact that the inquirer is a child is established later in the poem. The answer, of course, is God. The child describes the gifts God has given the lamb-life, food, clothing, and a sweet voice. In the second stanza, the child tells the lamb that it was made by God, and that 'he calls himself a lamb', and that 'he is a little child'. The poem ends with the child saying 'Little lamb, God bless thee!'

The poem begins with the question, "Little Lamb, who made thee?" The speaker, a child, asks the lamb about its origins: how it came into being, how it acquired its particular manner of feeding, its "clothing" of wool, its "tender voice." In the next stanza, the speaker attempts a riddling answer to his own question: the lamb was made by one who "calls himself a Lamb," one who resembles in his gentleness both the child and the lamb. The poem ends with the child bestowing a blessing on the lamb.

William blake once said, “In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.” William Blake is known for the love of his gothic art which influenced countless writers and artists through the ages. He was a nineteenth century writer and artist who was regarded as a seminal figure of the romantic age. He has been deemed both a major poet and an original thinker. To get an understand about William Blake's poem is to ask yourself “What is the poem doing?” and “How is it doing that?”. Throughout the essay, an exploration of William Blake’s life and accomplishments will provide along with an analysis of his poems, The Lamb and The Tyger.