‘The Lamb’

&
‘ The Tyger’

- William Blake

English Hons
CC9
Semester 4
On William Blake
• Span – Nov 1757-August 1827
• An English poet, painter and printmaker
• A prominent figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the
Romantic Age.
• Symbolism is absolutely basic to Blake’s poetry for he was a mystic.
• A visionary poet who came under the influence of some mystics,
particularly of Emanuel Swedenborg.
• Prominent works: ‘ Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, ‘ The
Marriage of Heaven and Hell’, ‘ The Four Zoas’, ‘ Jerusalem’, ‘ Milton’.
‘Songs of Innocence and
Experience'
• ‘The Songs of Innocence’were originally published in 1789 and ‘The Songs
of Experience’ in 1794.
• These songs deal with the contrary states of the human soul.
• While ‘ The songs of Innocence’ deal mostly with children symbolising
innocence and represent the world from the perspective of children, ‘The
Songs of Experience’ focus on a different world, grim and dark.
• The central group of related symbols that Blake employes to form a
dominant symbolic pattern consists of the child, the father and Christ
representing the states of innocence, experience and higher experience.
• Blake often holds child labour and dogmatic religion responsible for the loss
of a child’s innocence but he asserts at the same time the need for a child
to become experienced.
Theme of ‘The
Lamb’

• The lamb is presented as a manifestation of god’s will and the beauty of god’s creation.

• Presents child as a symbol of innocence.

• The poem seems to be actually spoken by a child who asks questions about the creator of the lamb, its food
and clothing. The questions are often rhetorical. The child himself answer them for he knows by his intuitive
mystical knowledge God is the lamb and he became a little child. The child thus asserts the divine presence of
God, potentially in all of his creations.

• Refers to the Christian concept of the lamb as an emblem of the Redeemer.

• The pastoral setting employed here is equivalent to the Garden of Eden.

• There are multiple symbols used in the poem to depict the innocence and tenderness associated with
infancy.
Theme of ‘ The Tyger'
• A symbolic poem representing the image of the creator and His deadly
terror. The speaker is awestruck by the ferocity and the crude beauty of
the tiger and wonders whether the same creator could have also created
the lamb.
• Once the lamb is destroyed by experience the tiger is needed to restore
the world as it represents the wisdom of God and also His wrath, that
helps in bringing redemtion and mercy. The tiger also represents
revolution and revolutionary art.
• Refer to the tiger’s connection with Orc, representing natural impulses
and energies. Note in this context that the creator who is Los is engaged
in the art of setting the energies free.
Los, Urizen and Orc
• Los is described as the smith beating with his hammer on a forge
which is metaphorically connected to the beating of the human heart.
In Blake’s mythology Los is the fallen form of Urthona, one of the four
zoas.
• Urizen in Blake’s mythology represents the source of opression.
Described as the ‘ primeaval priest’he became separated from other
immortals to create his own alienated and enslaving realm of religious
dogma.
• Orc represents the spirit of revolution and freedom. He stands
opposed to Urizen, the embodiment of tradition.
Further Reading
• You may refer to the following works while developing your answers:
• ‘ The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’(to refer to the concept of contraries
and progression)
• Some of Blake’s other poems like, ‘ The Sick Rose’, ‘ The Little Black Boy’, ‘
The Chimney Sweeper’, ‘ Holy Thursday’, ‘ The Human Abstract’
• T. S. Eliot’s ‘ Gerontion’ ( to refer to the poet’s idea about Christ to be full
of meekness and wrath who comes to deliver man from spiritual crisis.
• Blake’s ‘ The Four Zoas’and ‘The Book of Urizen’
• W.B.Yeats’s ‘ Second Coming’ (to refer to his concept of the ‘rough
beast’akin to the tiger.)
Worksheet
After a close reading of the text try to answer the following questions.
1. What does Blake mean by the forests of the night?
2. “ When the stars threw down their spears”-what image does the
line refer to?
3. What are the qualities of the lamb described by the poet?
4. How is the lamb identified?
5. Why is the Tiger spelt as Tyger?
6. What type of poem is ‘The Tyger’?
 Thank You
Presented by
Jayita Ghosh
Dept.  Of English
Netaji Nagar College ( Evening) 
gjayita14@gmail.com