Blake’s ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’: A Deep Dive into Symbolism
The Lamb – William Blake
Voice: The entire poem is in the third person because the narrator is a “child” who is talking to a lamb.
Mood: It’s a happy mood.
Summary: The child in the poem is talking to a lamb, which is the reincarnation of God. He’s asking questions about its creator. They are rhetorical questions because he already knows the answers (its creator is God).
Topic: Pantheism, which is the existence of an identity between God and His creatures.
Parts: We can divide the poem into two parts:
- Stanza 1: World of innocence and purity
- Stanza 2: God’s world; He is the creator.
Metrics: Iambic tetrameter. The rhyme is of couplets: aa bb cc dd aa aa ee ff ee aa (regular). Besides, we can find some eye-rhymes.
Figures:
- Lines 1-2: Anaphora (“who made thee”) and alliteration of the liquid /l/ and /i/
- Lines 3-4: Balanced lines
- Lines 5-6: Anaphora (“clothing”), metaphor (“clothing of delight” is referring to the wool), synesthesia (“woolly bright”, vision and touch).
- Line 8: Personification of the Lamb (it can make the vales rejoice)
- Lines 9-10: Anaphora (“who made thee”). These two lines are the refrain.
- Lines 11-12: Anaphora of the entire line, and alliteration of the liquid /l/
- Lines 13-16: Anaphora (“he”), parallelism and balanced lines, paronomasia and alliteration of the liquid /l/
- Line 17: Parallelism
- Lines 19-20: Anaphora of the entire line and alliteration of the liquid /l/
The Tyger – William Blake
Voice: The entire poem is written in the second person because the author is talking to another creature, the tiger.
Mood: Wonder, perplexity, and fear.
Summary: Blake asks the tiger what immortal being made him, who is a danger to other creatures.
Stanza by Stanza:
- 1st Stanza: The poet asks who created this terrifying creature that is called The Tyger.
- 2nd Stanza: The poet asks where this creature was created. Was it created in hell or heaven? And how could he (the creator, that seems to be God, but it is not named) work with the fire?
- 3rd Stanza: The poet asks what strength and craftsmanship could make the tiger’s heart.
- 4th Stanza: What kind of tool did he use to create the tiger in the forge fire?
- 5th Stanza: Attitude of the maker regarding the existence of the tiger. Could it be possible that the same being that created the lamb also created the tiger?
- 6th Stanza: Repetition of the central question. This time the poet changes the word “could” for “dare”. This is important because the poet is not asking who had the capacity to create the tiger but who dared to create such a terrible monster.
Parts: The poem can be divided into three parts:
- First, the power of the tiger (first stanza).
- Where the tiger was created. And what tools did the creator use? (Second, third, and fourth stanza).
- God could possibly be happy with his creation (fifth and sixth stanza).
Topic: The existence of evil. Nothing can exist without the opposite.
Metrics: Trochaic tetrameter. Six quatrains (AABB) and four stress syllables.
Figures:
- We can find a lot of rhetorical questions without any answer.
- Metaphor: Comparison of the tiger and his eyes to fire.
- Anaphora: Repetition of “what”
- Allusion: Immortal hand or eye = God. Distant deeps = Hell. Skies = Heaven