Most poetry works of William Blake came from the “songs of innocence” and “songs of experience” volumes. Blake, who is currently regarded as a prime figure in the history of the poetry, used his magnificent artistry to write a total of six captivating poems. In this article, I am going to contrast two of his works; The Lamb and The Tyger. Also, I will separately compare their similarities even though they are somehow similar in most of their styles and themes.
The Lamb
Summary
In the first stanza, the persona, who happens to be a child, directly addresses a lamb, asking it if it knows the creator, who breathed life and invited it to eat. He describes the Lamb in its natural environment. In his description, the Lamb comfortably frolics beside streams and runs through fields. He continues saying that he who made the creature, also provided a coat to it that comprises of a soft white wool. Besides, the gentleness of the noise of the Lamb is a source of happiness to the surrounding valleys. Generally, in the first stanza, the speaker is asking the Lamb whether it knows its creator, who gave it such immense beauty.
In the course of the second stanza, the speaker offers to provide a response to the question that he was querying the Lamb in the first stanza. He gives out this answer while in an excited mood. He says that the Lamb’s creator is indeed “A lamb” himself. He adds that this creator must be as gentle and kind as the Lamb is and that once he was a small child too. Therefore, the speaker and the Lamb have one creator that they share in common. The stanza ends with the speaker asking God twice to shower blessings to the Lamb.
Themes
The major theme of the poem is the creation of God. In the poem, a child addresses a lamb, while wondering about the way it came into existence, before asserting that all life comes from God. The speaker sees the evidence of the beauty of God’s creation is in the Lamb’s figure, which was gentle and humble. Additionally, the Lamb isn’t just a manifestation of God’s creation but an expression of God in the same manner the speaker is. Therefore, based on the Lamb’s example, the speaker suggests that, in fact, the whole world is an expression of God.
As the opening stanza inquires about the existence of the Lamb, the second one gives a reply that is very clear. As it is in John 1:29 of Bible, Jesus Christ is the one who is entitled as “The Lamb of God.” Therefore, the poem isn’t just displaying some astonishment about the beauty with which the Lamb was created, but also the manner in which the Lamb is God Himself, the same way the Bible describes God to be Jesus himself expressing thanks for its existence. The poem is an expression of the purity of God’s creation, untarnished by the kind of negative influences that Blake introduces in other poems. This poem terminates with the speaker asking God to shower His blessings to the Lamb, which, by extension, expresses the intentions of William Blake, which are to praise God for his marvelous works of creation.
Setting
The setting of the poem is in a natural environment. The poem presents a pastoral scene that is ideal. It vividly paints the picture of a lamb that is frolicking in its natural environment. Additionally, the poem highlights the beauty that nature has and how nature is a source of happiness to the world.
Form
The form of “The lamb” is deceptively simple. It consists of two stanzas with ten lines each. This kind of form sets the first stanza as a question and the second one as a response to the asked question.
The question asked by the persona in the first stanza is addressed to the Lamb and to the reader of the poem. The question reads” Who made the Lamb? “Meaning, who is the creator of world and the beauty contained in it?
In the second stanza’s course, the speaker gives the vehement response: God is the creator of Lamb and the world. Generally, the idea of oneness is presented in this stanza, implying that the Lamb, the speaker, Jesus, and the whole world form part of God’s creation thus are all an expression of Him. This simplicity suggests a regular structure.
Figurative language and poetic devices
The poetic devices and figurative languages used in the poem are repetition, alliteration, symbolism, apostrophe, assonance, rhetorical questions, personification, imagery and metaphor.
Rhyme scheme
Throughout the poem, the lines fall into rhyming couplets
Tone
In this poem, Blake uses a joyous and peaceful tone.
The tyger
Summary
The first stanza commences with the speaker being perplexed after a seeing a tarrying tiger at night. Then, the speaker directly addressing the tiger, asking it if knows its creator, who breathed life into it and gave it its fierce look. Each stanza that follows contains more questions, whereby all of them polish the first one. In the course of the stanzas that follow, the speaker doesn’t not comprehend how the horrible heart of the tiger began to beat. He further adds that for the creation process of the tiger to take place, then that creator must have had a lot of courage. The speaker goes ahead and compares the creator to a blacksmith. Here, he thinks about the anvil and the furnace that the creation project would have required. Upon completion of the work of creation, the speaker wonders of the way the creator felt.
Themes
The main theme of this poem is God’s creation. The speaker wonders of the beautiful qualities that the tiger has with its fierce appearance and asks himself whether the Tiger’s creator is also the Lamb’s creator.
Setting
The setting of the poem is in a natural environment. The poem presents a scene where the persona encounters the tiger at night, where the latter was comfortably frolicking in its natural environment.
Form
The poem has six quatrains and has a regular and rhythmic meter, whose hammering beat suggests the creation work of a blacksmith, which is basically the central image of the poem. The way the stanzas are simple and neat suits a regular structure perfectly.
Figurative language and poetic devices
The poetic devices and figurative languages used in the poem are repetition, alliteration, symbolism, apostrophe, assonance, rhetorical questions, personification, imagery and metaphor.
Rhyme scheme
The six quatrains of the poem fall into rhyming couplets.
Tone
The tone moves from wonder, to fear, to irreverent accusation then finally to resigned curiosity.
Similarities
The main similarities are:
The setting of both poems is a natural environment
Both poems have a similar theme, that is, God’s creation
Both poems employ similar literally devices
The simplicity and use of rhyming couplets makes it easier to read and comprehend both poems.
Differences
The main differences are:
The tyger has six stanzas whereas the Lamb has two.
The tyger emphasizes on the dangers contained in nature and life whereas the Lamb celebrates life and nature.
Conclusively, many things are similar in both poems thus making them more of similar. However, the main similarity between the poems is the theme of God’s creation and the main difference is that the tyger emphasizes on the dangers contained in nature and life whereas the Lamb celebrates life and nature.