Abstract
William Blake, the famous English romantic lyrical poet, wrote this musical poem, “ The Lamb”, which was published in his book “Songs of Innocence and Experience.” It is simple in style but a metaphorical poem with allusions to the Bible.
Introduction
William Blake, a romantic poet of the late 18th century, published the poem “ The Lamb” in his poetic collection called the “Songs of Innocence and Experience (Blake, 1789).” There is an air of innocence in the poem as the speaker asks a little lamb about its creator. This short poem is notable because of its lyrical style and its musical intonation. The poet uses simple words to weave music into his lines, while answering a deeply philosophical question about who the creator of the humble lamb is.
Theme of the poem
Theme
The theme of this poem is that all creation has been carefully and perfectly crafted by the creator of the universe, the Lamb of God. This is evidenced by the question the speaker poses to a little lamb, “ Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?” and the answer which the speaker gives the lamb himself, “ Little lamb I'll tell thee,----------He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb”. In the Biblical Gospel according to John 1:29, John the Baptist alludes to Jesus Christ thus: “ Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.” The speaker tells the little lamb that his creator is the Lamb of God(Hunter, 1965).
Motif
“ Who made thee” is a repeated element in the following lines: “ Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?” and again the couplet at the end of the first stanza reads “ Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?” The repeated elements in this poem, clarify the theme of the poem and its motif.
Literal Setting or Situation of the poem
The literal setting of the poem is a pasture set in a green valley. The lines “Bid thee feed by the stream and o'er the mead” gives the visual image to the reader that this poem is set in a pastoral green land, with sheep grazing in the horizon. The allusion of this poem is to David's psalm 23 which embody the eternal lines “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil(Pyper, 2001).”The visual imagery of a green valley is provided in the line “ Making all the vales rejoice”. The reference to the “ stream” and to the “mead”( meadow) are symbols the poet uses to refer to the peaceful heavenly pasture,where all children of God live like sheep on a pasture, with no cares or wants. The reader is left to decide what the symbols mean.
The Title and its significance to the poem's content/meaning
The title “The Lamb” is an allusion to the Biblical lamb of God, referenced in John Chapter 1(Hunter, 1965). The poem talks of a speaker, who in his innocence, talks to a little lamb, who is clothed in the in a soft woolen coat and blessed with a tender voice that makes all the surrounding valleys echo its musical notes.
Literary devices/figures of speech used to communicate the theme of the poem
The poet uses metaphors to compare the little lamb to the Lamb of God(Jesus Christ) in the lines “ He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb. He is meek, and he is mild.” and also in the lines “He became a little child.” There is a allusion to the Biblical pasture land in the lines “By the stream and o'ver the mead” and also “ Gave thee clothing of delight” ( Luke 12:27 : "Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these(Smith, 1993).)”. The poet uses enjambment in the lines “Gave thee life, and bid thee feed By the stream and o'ver the mead” to convey an overflow of his emotions when reflecting over the abundant bounty given to all human beings by God. There is anaphora in the lines “Gave thee life, and bid thee feed”, “Gave thee clothing of delight” and “Gave thee such a tender voice.” Again the poet uses anaphora in the lines “ Little Lamb, I'll tell thee, Little Lamb, I'll tell thee” and in the lines “ He is called by thy name--- He is meek, and he is mild; He became as a little child.” In addition, there is alliteration( consonance) in the words “ Little Lamb” and “tell thee”.
Metrical devices used in the poem
This is a simple 20-line poem arranged in couplets. The rhyming scheme is simple and goes AA BB CC DD AA (1st stanza) and AA EF GG FE AA (2nd stanza). The rhyming words used are thee, thee; feed, mead; delight, bright; voice, rejoice; thee, thee in the first stanza and thee, thee; name, Lamb, lamb, name; mild, child, thee, thee in the second stanza. There is internal rhyming used in the words “meek” and “ mild”. These rhyming words create an image of softness and mildness, happiness and light, associated with the gentle creator of the universe, the one who is known as the Lamb of God, which is the central theme of the poem.
Identity of the poem's writer
Innocence is conveyed in simple words, throughout the poem, which indicate an innocent mind, like a child's. The lines, “ little lamb, who made thee?Dost thou know who made thee?, resonate with transparency. It leads one to think that the poem's narrator is probably a little child. This child is still learning and has a lot to learn in his life's journey. He delights in the little knowledges that he has and in sharing them with others as the speaker does with a lamb. He sees beauty and glory in simple things as illustrated in the words “gave thee clothing of delight, softest clothing, wooly, bright; gave thee such a tender voice.” The narrator of the poem is revealed towards the end of the second stanza in the line “I a child, and thou a lamb”. This child is intelligent and has a reflective mind as seen in the lines, “Little Lamb, who made thee?”
Narrator’s opinion of the poem's subject matter
The narrator has a child like faith and a surety in his belief that like a little lamb, he has been created and given life to, by the Lamb of God. He has been provided with ample supplies of food, soft, wooly, bright clothes,and blessed with a tender voice with which he can sing songs. The lines “Gave thee life, and bid thee feed by the stream and o'ver the mead; Gave thee clothing, wooly, bright; Gave thee such a tender voice, making all the vales rejoice?” allude to the narrator’s belief that God is the provider and nurturer of the whole world.
References
Blake, W. (1789). Songs of Innocence and Experience | World Public Library - eBooks | Read eBooks online. World Public library Association. Retrieved from http://worldlibrary.org/eBooks/WPLBN0000706963-Songs-of-Innocence-and-Experience-by-Blake--William.aspx?&Words=Songs of Innocence
Hunter, A. M. (1965). The Gospel according to John. The Cambridge Bible Commentry on the New English Bible.
Pyper, H. S. (2001). THE TRIUMPH OF THE LAMB: PSALM 23 AND TEXTUAL FITNESS. Biblical Interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches. doi:10.1163/15685150152695281
Smith, R. E. (1993). The Holy Bible. Lutheran Witness, 112, 19. doi:220.520 B41h
