Blake: The Lamb and The Tyger.

Tom Walker

Blake: The Lamb and The Tyger

‘The Lamb’ seems like it is written through the eyes of an innocent child. Like a child the lamb is not fully-grown and still possesses the innocence of youth and it is shown in the poem. It talks about a kind and selfless creator. The use of rhetorical questioning followed by an immediate and simple answer, ‘Dost thou know who made thee? / Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,’ adds to the childlike quality. Like a child he doesn’t question things. The Lamb’s gentle nature is emphasised by the word choices about the creator that calm and soothe (‘tender,’ ‘meek,’ and ‘woolly’) and the verbs of giving used such as ‘made’ and ‘gave’, finally the setting – a meadow. Another means by which the poet reassures the reader of the gentle and benevolent nature of the creator is through the use of repetition, which allows for a very predictable and simple presentation which is nothing less than intentionally child-like, ‘Little Lamb, God Bless thee! / Little Lamb, God Bless thee!’ As they say Ignorance is bliss here Blake is untroubled and knows absolutely who the creator is and is in no doubt.

The Tyger starts with a strong shape and rhythm, almost as though feeding a fire, it is a relentless beat like ‘Fate’ – you can’t avoid it. The questions are continuously recurring, and none are answered, creating a build-up of doubt and fear. The poem is constructed of pairs of rhyming couplets. A strong and appropriate rhythm is created through the use of stressed and unstressed syllables. The pattern results in a primitive ‘drum beat’ that is apt for a tiger in a forest.

‘The Tyger’, uses layers of rhetorical questioning and symbols to lead the reader to their ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

‘The Tyger’, uses layers of rhetorical questioning and symbols to lead the reader to their own conclusion. ‘Did he smile his work to see?’ This rhetorical technique of guided questions leads readers to greater doubts regarding the goodness of the creator. The word ‘what’ is used over a dozen times in this short poem, ‘What immortal hand or eye’. The text questions the creator, yet it does not ask ‘who?’ instead it asks ‘what?’ This may be reflective of how inhumane the creation of the tiger first seems. The fact that he ends the poem with a question ‘Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?’ shows that he has not found the answer he is looking for.

‘Tyger, Tyger burning bright’ – Blake begins his poem with the two alliterations. The alliteration focuses on the grandeur of the Tyger, creating a sense of wonder for the reader. Other alliterations like ‘burning bright,’ ‘distant deeps’ and ‘what wings’ each help create a type of feeling and emotion that is prevalent to the line. The alliteration is successful because it draws you in to the musical meter and makes the sound stick in your mind.

The creation verbs ‘twist, ‘dare,’ ‘burnt,’ and ‘seize’ foreground the danger and daring of the creation act, while the place of creation is described as a distant, fiery, furnace. And the ‘hammer,’ ‘anvil,’ and ‘furnace’ are images of an industrial revolution which Blake would have seen approaching in his lifetime. These all position the reader to think that the creator of the Tyger is different to the creator of the Lamb.

The miss spelling of tiger suggests the exotic or alien quality of the beast. Another idea is that the ‘y’ in ‘Tyger’ is acting as the question ‘why?’ which is the whole point of the poem – questioning. The idea, tiger, creates reactions of both awe and terror; however, by placing his tyger ‘in the forest’ (rather than the jungle) Blake both softens the image and contributes to the unnatural atmosphere begun by the word Tyger.

‘When the stars threw down their spears, And water’d heaven with their tears.’ Blake uses the heavens to signal the conclusion of creation and possibly to portray concern and fear of the existence of evil.

‘The Tyger’ could be seen as a mockery. Or a modern person’s example against the traditional belief in God. Thus, the poem would be saying that God could not be this illogical. Therefore, God in the traditional role of goodness does not exist.

‘What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?’ We are asked not to consider the biological parentage of the tiger, but rather the Divine parentage of the tiger. In doing this we can begin to compare the nature of a lamb to a tiger, and begin to understand Blake's philosophy about creation. ‘Did he who made the Lamb make thee?’ The fact that perhaps the same immortal hand created both the domesticated and tame nature of the lamb and the wild characteristic of the tiger is frightening in a way. There is a balance there, but perhaps not the kind of balance we would choose ourselves given the choice. ‘Did he smile his work to see?’ Blake wonder’s if he actually intended to make it like that. With good comes evil that’s the reality and without the evil the good would never seem as good because we would have nothing to compare it to, it would just be the norm. So maybe by making the Tyger he intended to make the Lamb that much more special.

They’re several comparisons between the two poems, for example, in both poems the narrator is speaking directly to each animal. They are both seen only through a particular point of view. Both ‘The Tyger’ and ‘The Lamb’ are about creation. Both the creatures are asked about their creator. Both animals exist in the human heart that both are creations of God and, lastly, that both natures also exist in God.

Lambs and tigers are extraordinarily different animals. But are they so different that we would wonder whether God might have made them both? A lamb is a symbol of innocence. A tiger, on the other hand, is a ferocious, fearsome, and violent creature and can thus be taken as a symbol of evil. In contrast to the pastoral setting of the innocent lamb, the tiger is born out of the depths of our consciousness. Blake uses the metaphor of fire to describe the way the tiger sees and is seen. This is not the unpretentious vision of the lamb.