Compare and contrast the two poems, 'The Lamb' and 'The Tyger' by William Blake
Alex Nash10EEnglish English Coursework Compare and contrast the two poems, ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’ by William BlakeThis essay will focus on the enchanting poem, ‘The Lamb’ which is taken from the ‘Songs of Innocence’ which will be compared and contrasted with the mysterious poem, ‘The Tyger’, which is taken from the ‘Songs of Experience’. The poem of ‘The Lamb’ represents the child’s early years whereas ‘The Tyger’ portrays an adult (the dominator). Blake has constructed these two poems from natural views and by comparing and contrasting them I may end up with an answer on what Blake is trying to explain in these poems. The settings of each poem are set distinctively as each poem is set to suit their title. The place at which ‘The Lamb’ is set, ‘By the stream and o’er the mead’, immediately gives us the image of a meadow, and as if a child is playing in the meadow. This contrasts to ‘The Tyger’ as Blake has set this poem, ‘in the forests of the night’, which conveys a view of darkness; something that only an adult would understand. This gives a sign of apprehension. The word ‘night’ could be symbolic of the cave or layer of which ‘The Tyger’ survives which would be murky and humid. The repetition of the word ‘Tyger’ builds atmosphere as if Blake is eager to get its attention or maybe it has something important to tell him and he wants to ensure the tiger is listening. It could also explain that he has a great fascination with the
tiger. This compares with the start of the second verse in ‘The Lamb’, ‘Little Lamb I’ll tell thee. Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!’Blake is saying to the lamb, I’ll tell you who made you, and it is repeated maybe because he is so keen to tell the lamb how he was created. The child is jubilant at realizing it has the answer to its one essential question I’ve noticed that both animals have been positioned in situations of which they are being questioned the same thing. Who is their creator? They are in a position in which they are supposed ...
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tiger. This compares with the start of the second verse in ‘The Lamb’, ‘Little Lamb I’ll tell thee. Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!’Blake is saying to the lamb, I’ll tell you who made you, and it is repeated maybe because he is so keen to tell the lamb how he was created. The child is jubilant at realizing it has the answer to its one essential question I’ve noticed that both animals have been positioned in situations of which they are being questioned the same thing. Who is their creator? They are in a position in which they are supposed to be giving answers. Maybe because of the lamb being like a child we will be given the answer straight away. However with the tiger being associated with the adult, it may be losing its faith about God’s existence. The tiger is a symbol for this confusion – beautiful on the outside, but savage on the other. ‘What immortal hand or eye…’ taken from ‘The Tyger’ and ‘Little Lamb who made thee…’ taken from ‘The Lamb’, explain the point I have made. The fear does not come from the tiger. The appearance and habitat are not focused on when describing the tiger, suggesting that the tiger is not the one to be feared. The fear can only come from one thing, which is the tiger’s creator. Did God create this creature? “What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?” implies that, if God can create a creature like a tiger then isn’t it possible that he could create the savagery in man? This contrasts with ‘The Lamb’ because the line ‘he is meek and he is mild’ conveys that God is innocent like a child. The points that God is powerful and created a powerful tiger, contradicts itself with God being like a child and being innocent and creating a lamb. Both poems are structured very differently. ‘The Lamb’ has two verses, which completely contrasts to ‘The Tyger’ whose poem is split into six verses, containing a sense of consecutive questions that are never answered. However, both poems use questions and are both used in the same manner. “Little Lamb, who made thee?” in ‘The Lamb’ and “What immortal…Thy fearful symmetry?” shows this. The questions are answered in ‘The Lamb but not ‘The Tyger’ because in a way the poem of ‘The Tyger’ resembles an adult, as an adult loses its faith in God and doesn’t see reason to answer. Where as the lamb is like a child and the child has answered us in our quest of who made thee. The child answers because it is learning to know God and become one with God. God, the lamb and the child all equal a whole. In ‘The Tyger’ I think the voice is an adult male as these types of people are extremely dominating like the poem is. ‘The Tyger’ begins with “Could frame…” because the poet is questioning what ‘could’ have made such a powerful yet beautiful creature. What had the power to do so? The poet questions whilst the adult is not sure what is going on. It ends with “Dare frame…” because the adult has assumed the tiger is a creature that has been made on purpose and his having doubts about God’s goodness, so it assumes that whoever created this creature is daring in doing so.In both poems, creation is described as deliberate in a way because in ‘The Tyger’ the point is made that it couldn’t be by accident that this creature was made. “When the stars threw down their spears” implies this, hence the word “When”. In ‘The Lamb’ it is questioned that whoever made thee, made thee for good. “Making all the vales rejoice” suggests this. When Blake questions where the tiger was made, “In what distant, deep or skies”, he is trying to imply whether the tiger is made from an evil creator or superior creator. In other words he is questioning weather God is an evil or superior creator. Blake mentions tools, “What the hammer? What the chain?” in the creation of the tiger. It implies that there could be a lot of effort in creating this creature meaning the tiger has been made for a purpose. Time and effort went into the creation of the poem as it did with the tiger. The creator framed the tiger in ‘fearful symmetry just like Blake tried to frame his understanding of it in the poem. God, the child and the lamb are like one and the same thing because the line “For he calls himself a lamb” shows that god, the child and the lamb are all like lambs as we are all to be redeemed. There is also always a possibility for redemption. The creator of the tiger is like a blacksmith because a blacksmith uses tools for his creations like the creator has for the tiger. This suggests that time and effort went into creating the tiger. There are suggestions that the creator could be Satan, “In what distant, deep or skies”, deep referring to hell (home of Satan). The sentence “what dread hand and what dread feet?” may be referring to the hand as the hand of God and the feet the feet of the tyger, which furthermore goes onto the fact that maybe God has element of the tiger inside him. The sentence “What the hand dare seize the fire” is asking, who created you and whoever did what energy has he given to you? Each poem uses rhyming couplets but create very different rhythms and effects. Lines such as “Gave thee clothing of delight… Wooly bright. This is set out as a type of nursery rhyme, which refers back to the child. The child can understand a nursery rhyme. This is contrasted with the rhyming sentence from ‘The Tyger’ “What the anvil? What dead grasp… terrors clasp?” which is rhymed like a type of chant. Chants that are meant be heard, a chant of an adult. The surroundings of the lamb are shown in the sentence, “gave thee life and bid thee feed… oe’r the mead” which indicates that this creature lives in a beautiful habitat. This contrasts with the lines from ‘The Tyger’ “Tyger, Tyger burning … forests of the night” which in other words is suggesting that the tiger lives in a dark forest, which normally associates a daring and drastic habitat. All these are used as it gives the reader more to think about whilst reading the poem. It helps the readers think for themselves of why the tiger is known for being vicious and the lamb being the complete opposite. These two poems have had many conclusions from many different people. It all depends on how you read the poems. My belief is that Blake has so much fascination with this tiger that he doesn’t really want an answer from where the tiger has come but likes to think of all the possibilities that it could have come from. ‘The Lamb’ on the other hand answers the question and I believe that Blake’s message in this poem is that God is innocent and that the lamb is a symbol of the goodness of God.
