Summary Of The Poem The Lamb

In the poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," William Blake uses symbolism, tone, and rhyme to advance the theme that God can create good and bad creatures. The poem "The Lamb" was in Blake's "Songs of Innocence," which was published in 1789. "The Tyger," in his "Songs of Experience," was published in 1794. In these contrasting poems he shows symbols of what he calls "the two contrary states of the human soul" (Shilstone 1).

The most leading literary device used in Blake’s poems is symbolism. In this particular poem, “The Lamb” is a reference to God himself. This is because of the trinity that is involved with being a Christ follower. The trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The child in the poem, is a symbol as innocence and purity just like Jesus Christ. Christians are to “receive the kingdom of God like a child” (Luke 18:17, ESV). This means that we are to have child-like faith, and trust in God, just like children do in their parents.

The first extreme in Blake’s Songs of Innocence & Songs of Experience is innocence. The Songs of Innocence is comprised of poems of young children who have a naïve perspective of the world around them. In The Lamb, the young child is compared to a untainted lamb who has not been corrupted by the world. In The Chimney Sweepers the orphaned child is sold to be a chimneysweeper. The child clearly has no hope for any future, however the naïve child listens to the voice of the angel and makes peace with his situation. He blindly accepts the comfort without coming to the recognition that he will ultimately die. In The Little Black Boy, the child doesn’t recognize the prevalent racism of his time. He believes that he and the white child can sit together in the light of G-d and together they will be like innocent sheep. These children encounter

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 .

“The Lamb” in Songs of Innocence, and “The Tyger” in Songs of Experience were written with biblical influence, and Blake demonstrates his biblical upbringing through out these poems. “The Lamb” is represented through a pastoral story line, allowing a connection with agriculture and nature, much like many stories in the Bible. “The Tyger’s” storyline, however introduces the question of theodicy, or why there is evil in the world. How can God make a lamb so innocent and pure, and in turn create something so evil and cruel? Throughout “The Tyger”, Blake asks hypothetical questions,

Roald Dahl’s short story Lamb to the Slaughter and Alfred Hitchcock’s rendition of the short story in the film Lamb to the Slaughter have similar framework , but contain many differences. Firstly, Both had Mary murder her husband with a frozen lamb. Furthermore, she was not actually discovered to be the murder for she had an alibi and the detectives ate the murder weapon. In contrast, Mary’s alibi in the story is that she went to the grocery store while in the movie it was that she had dinner plans. Additionally, Patrick’s problems with Mary conversation is up for interpretation. In the story the narrator takes the reader away from the action and simply states that he spoke to her. In Alfred Hitchcock’s film Patrick directly states that he

“The Lamb” is a poem written by William Blake that has a handful of ideas or concepts going on all at once. The setting is unknown to the readers, but we know that the speaker is a child because it is made clear in the 17th line where Blake writes “I a child & thou a lamb.” When I first read this poem, I was dazed and confused. I initially thought why the child is talking to an animal when Blake writes ““Little Lamb who made thee” (1). Blake then proceeds to ask questions about the lamb’s origin. What does the child hope to accomplish when speaking rhetorically to an animal? This first stanza is meant to seem innocent, sincere and shrewd as if the child was joking around with the lamb, since the child is not expecting an answer. The child who represents innocence because children are often seen as innocent, is asking the little lamb about its origins. I thought the child was perhaps bored and might be a shepard speaking to one of his sheep that he takes care of and looks after. My initial reading led me to believe that in the last stanza, Blake suddenly moves from a innocent and humorous tone towards a serious conversation with the animal about Christianity and religion.

The poem “The Lamb” written by William Blake is a part of his collection of poems called Songs of Innocence. His outlook on life when writing this collection of poems was optimistic and showed his great appreciation for life and especially nature. In this poem, which is pastoral in nature, Blake uses imagery to emphasize the innocence (bordering on naivety) that he sees in the world. This works in tandem with Blake’s pleasant diction to create a tone of comfort and well-being, which reflects the optimistic point of view that Blake had on life. Additionally the religious symbolism throughout the poem highlights the love that the speaker - as well Blake - feels towards nature and all living beings. Through the pleasant diction, the imagery of innocence and the religious symbolism, Blake spreads his message and belief that all aspects of life are pure and are deserving of love because they were all created by a benevolent and generous god.

"This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I'm afraid," he said. “I am being transferred to Africa for my research on African elephants. They have asked me to stay there for a period of six months. I am sorry Mary but I have booked only a ticket for myself because the living conditions there are not ideal for a pregnant woman like you.

In William Blake's Poem “The Chimney Sweeper”, Blake uses allusions, symbols, and metaphor to convey his theme of Innocence, Death, and Youth. With this Blake also goes in depth about the speakers childhood. Finally Blake ends with a dream and how innocence is a major part of the poem. Blake’s foundation of this poem relies on biblical allusions which provide the poem with a theme of innocence and, without them, Blake may have just had an ordinary poem with no deeper meaning in it.

“The Lamb”, a poem from a series written by William Blake, begins with and revolves around a young lamb who has not yet experienced the world and its mishaps. Center of the poem, the lamb is continuously being examined. Through the use of rhetorical questions, allusions, symbols, and other figurative language, Blake clearly illustrates the theme that innocence provides a means for taking joy in natural creation. While the lamb referred to in this poem of Blake’s is portrayed to be tender and very childlike, I would not say that the poem was made solely for the eyes of the youth. One way this poem has been perceived that opposes my opinion is that Blake wrote it for children to see or hear (Bussey 2001).

The Lamb is a short story that Blake wrote which is about a lamb that is pure and innocent. In the story Blake describes the lamb as young and cute. To be innocent means that you are young, unaware, without evil, a follower, or pure. The lamb in the story is all of those characteristics. The lamb hasn't hurt anything or anyone, which makes the lamb in the story innocent. In the story the little lamb is asked “Who made thee”(748), in other words it means who made you. Even though the person asking knows that the lamb came from God, the speaker continues to keep asking the lamb where he came from until the speaker finally tells him that God made him. In the Christian faith, God is referred to as the “lamb” because lambs are pure and innocent. In the short story is states “For he calls himself a lamb”(748), the story is referring to “him” as God. God calls himself a lamb because he is pure. God made this lamb to symbolize innocence. The story, The Lamb is an archetype of innocence.

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

In my opinion these pieces had very different tones, the lamb poem seemed very innocent and childlike and the tyger section was sort of dark and scary. Similarly both animals were a creation of God living in different environments. The lamb seemed like a nurtured child and the tiger was like a matured adult taking care of himself in the wild. After reading both poems it felt like it was a display of good versus evil, especially when the author. The rhetorical questions brought forth certain imagery to both pieces that made you think and feel about the experience and in relation to the adult to child response made me think of god and Jesus Christ in that he, Jesus was the Lamb of God

In Songs of Innocence, the dominant symbol is the child. The poems are narrated from the standpoint of a child and represent the early stages of the human imagination. At this point in its life, the imagination is not fully formed and does not yet contain its own distinctive character. The innocent's world view is one of "Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love" where God the creator bestows meaning upon nature.