Introduction
William Blake is a great poet from England who was born November 28, 1757, and died August 12, 1927 (Bentley, 2016). He wrote Songs of Innocence and Songs from Experience (Poetry Foundation, 2016). In this work, William Blake speaks of two animals in opposite ways. The purpose of this paper is to write of the meaning of the two poems and compare each of the poems. The question: What are the likenesses and differences in the poems “The Lamb”, and “The Tyger” that make one poem a poem of innocence and the other poem a poem of experience? Will be answered in the paper, in my opinion, and from cited works.
Meaning of The Lamb
The poem titled The Lamb is from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. It is a poem about a lamb. The narrator of the poem asks the lamb one question after another in the poem, such as “Dost thou know / who made thee” (2). After asking more questions using beautiful words, the narrator answers the questions with “Little, Lamb / I’ll tell thee”, and repeats the words (11). In the words there is a meaning that can be understood at, “He is called by thy name / For he calls himself a lamb” (13-14). When I went to an online Bible source, I found the word lamb means the Lamb of God (Biblegateway, 2016). The reason why the word lamb is used this way is because the words of the Bible which say, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Biblegateway, 2016). The lamb Willam Blake is writing about and saying that “He is meek and he is mild / He became a little child: (15-16) has a name and his name is Jesus Christ (Biblegateway, 2016). More evidence that the lamb is the personification of Jesus Christ is “We are called / by his name.” (18). In the Bible I read “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.” (Biblehub, 2016). From these words, William Blake is talking about the lamb called Jesus Christ, who takes care of his lambs. (Biblehub, 2016). This tells us the meaning of who the lamb is in the poem. Then William Blake writes “Little Lamb God bless thee” (19-20). The poet is asking that the God from the Bible bless the lamb from him, and the lamb the people who belong to his Lamb. This is why he writes the words two times. The lamb is asked who made it in an innocent way, and perhaps it is innocent, and does not know. Blake answers the question for the innocent lamb. All of these points makes the poem The Lamb a poem about innocence, and comes from an innocent viewpoint, whether the reader, or narrator is innocent or not.
The Meaning of The Tyger
The second poem by William Blake is about a tiger. Just as William Blake asked questions about The Lamb, he asks the same questions about The Tyger in the words, “What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” (3-4). When the poet asks the tiger who made the tiger, William Blake is writing about the God from the Bible in this work, too. William Blake writes about the tiger differently than the way he writes about the lamb. He writes that the lamb is “meek and mild” (15). In The Tyger, the poet writes about the tiger, “What the hammer / what the chain / In what furnace was thy brain?” (13-14). In my opinion, this means that the tiger was beaten to be a tiger, and was maybe done this way by God, or people. The chain means William Blake is asking what is holding the tiger that makes him what he is. When he asks about the tiger’s brain, and writes that it is made in a furnace, this tells the reader that William Blake wonders if the God from the Bible made the tiger, or if someone or something evil made the tiger. This is the reason for the words, “In what distant deeps or skies /Burnt the fire of thine eyes!” (5-6). In my reading of these words this is my opinion from experience with knowing about animals. Animals do not act out in a bad way unless they have been treated badly by someone. Even though tigers do need to hunt for food to live, they do not go to hunt for people. Even in these words, William Blake wants the reader to know this “symmetry” about the tiger in the words, “What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” (3-4). The symmetry means that the tiger has one side that has to hunt violently to kill, to eat, to live. The other side of the symmetry is for a tiger caged, or treated badly, and that the tiger has been made to act more violently than he is. In the words of The Tyger, this is what my opinion is; William Blake is writing that a tiger is born a tiger, and that a tiger can be made to act out in a bad way by experience with chains, because it is meant to be free. It could also be said that a tiger is the personification of people who have been through an experience that can make people be different in behavior than a lamb. All of these points make The Tyger sound as if it comes from a place of experience, where the person, or narrator is asking questions as if experience has made doubts as to where the tiger comes from.
Comparison and Contrast
Like in The Lamb, poet William Blake asks The Tyger who made it. He only uses different words. In The Lamb, the questions are like a mystery that William Blake answers at the end. In The Tyger, William Blake makes a guess of what made the tiger, as if he knows what made the tiger. The answer to the questions William Blake asks about The Lamb are answered by him at the end of the poem. In The Tyger, the question is not solved; Blake does not bless the tiger as he did the lamb. His last words of the poem are “What immortal hand or eye / Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” (23-24). William Blake names the lamb to be Jesus Christ and also writes that the people who believe him are his lambs. William Blake names the tiger to be a tiger, hunting, or being hunted or hurt, but still writes about God from the Bible by asking if God made the tiger. The Lamb is written with beautiful words that talk about light. One can see light when reading The Lamb. The Tiger is seen like fire and darkness when I read it, and the words make me see the poem in this way. One poem sounds like an answer, and the other remains a question. The poems are opposites like light and darkness, but they still go together.
Innocence and Experience
After studying these poems, it can be seen that The Lamb is spoken by a person who is innocent, or wants to be innocent. When people are innocent, there is no darkness in them. They see things in usually one way. This is the way in which I see the poetry of The Lamb. In The Tyger, another kind of person is speaking. They seem to have experienced things that have caused the tiger to be the way it is, full of fire, and burning bright, but in a dark way that says that the innocence of the lamb is no longer in the tiger. The only thing that sounds innocent about The Tyger are the questions that are asked about it. Even the questions are spoken by experience. Experience, in my opinion, always seem to know the answer, even if it is not a good answer. The answer seems to be this; William Blake is saying that God from the Bible made both of these animals. They represent innocence, and experience by what they are. One is light that is like a spirit. This is the innocence of the lamb. The other is a dark fire that is bright in its way, but it is not the same. This is the experience of the tiger. Experience has made it something else. Experience from the world, from whatever made it feel chained, or hurt it. All of these words come from experience, as if there is no way for experience to get back to innocence. Perhaps this is why the lamb needs belief to be innocent, and the tiger needs freedom.
Works Cited
Bentley, G. E. (2016). "William Blake | British Writer and Artist". Encyclopedia Britannica. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Aug. 2016.
Biblegateway.com. (2016) “Passage: John 1:29 - New International Version”. Bible Gateway. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Aug. 2016.
Biblehub.com. (2016). "Isaiah 40:11 He Tends His Flock Like A Shepherd: He Gathers The Lambs In His Arms And Carries Them Close To His Heart; He Gently Leads Those That Have Young.". Biblehub.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Aug. 2016.
Poetry Foundation.org. (2016) "William Blake". Poetryfoundation.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 12 Aug. 2016.
