Compare ‘The Tyger’ and ‘The Lamb’ by Blake.

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Compare ‘The Tyger’ and ‘The Lamb’ by Blake

‘The Lamb’ is taken from Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ and ‘The Tyger’ is taken from Blake’s ‘Songs of Experience’. ‘The Lamb’ describes a child asking a ‘Little Lamb’ who made it and, in the second stanza, the child’s question is answered. Each poem in ‘Songs of Innocence’ has a parallel in Blake’s collection ‘Songs of Experience’ and ‘The Tyger’ is the parallel to ‘The Lamb’. It, too, poses the question of who created the animal. The two creatures that are the subjects of these poems are very different from each other. Lambs are benign, domesticated, cuddly animals which even a tiny child can safely pet. Tigers are magnificent beasts, but could be described as killing machines, perfectly designed to stalk, hunt and kill. They are a danger to other forms of life, including man.

As parallels to one another, on one level the two poems have a lot in common. They ask the same basic question: who created the animal that is the subject of the poem? There is even a link to ‘The Lamb’ in ‘The Tyger’, when the question is asked ‘Did he who made the lamb make thee?’ At a deeper level, they both explore Blake’s view of the world and of God, and of the nature of the relationships between God and Man and between Man and the world which God created.

There is also a similarity in structure between the two poems. Both are in rhyming couplets and in both the beginning of the poem is echoed in the final lines. ‘The Lamb’ opens with

 ‘Little Lamb who made thee?’

 and ends

‘Little Lamb, God bless thee!’

 while the first and last stanzas of ‘The Tyger’ are virtually identical. In ‘The Lamb’ this has the effect of rounding off the poem neatly by referring back to the first line and stressing that ‘God’ is the answer to the question and that the writer feels that the lamb should be blessed. In ‘The Tyger’ it also serves as a reminder of the question, but this time emphasising the fact that, not only has it not been answered, but that whoever made the tiger is fearless and daring because not only ‘could’ he create the tiger, but he has dared to actually do so.

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The style and mood of the two poems is very different. The ‘I’ in ‘The Lamb’ is a child and this is reflected in the simple, straightforward language and the gentle, innocent imagery. For example, the questions are very direct:

‘Little Lamb who made thee?

Dost thou know who made thee?’

The lamb is described as feeding ‘By the stream and o’er the mead’ and wearing

‘Softest clothing, woolly, bright’. He has ‘such a tender voice’ it makes ‘all the vales rejoice’. These are images of nature as beautiful and joyous.

 Like a child’s nursery ...

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