The poem maintains a rhythm of four beats to a line throughout and a regular “aabb..." rhyming pattern, as well as common examples of alliteration and verse. This makes the poem easy to get to children and adults alike. There is a lot of repetition in the poem: the word “Tiger." is repeated in the opening line, and the first stanza is repeated (with a slight change) at the end of the poem the words “What?”, “dare" and " dread" make quite a few appearances. The repetition of these words and the questioning creates a sense of fear and wonder.
When I read this poem it is not easy to know what Blake really wanted for me to understand from this strange and fascinating poem. But what cannot be doubted is power and beauty of the poem. Perhaps Blake just wanted his readers to feel this power and beauty and to ask ourselves why our world should contain such opposites as goodness and evil, beauty and ugliness. The Lamb" from "Songs of Innocence" is a very symbolic poem. The lamb in the poem can symbolize innocence, peacefulness, a child, Jesus, or surrender. I think that the main themes of the poem are childhood, nature and religious truth. "Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?"This poem begins with a child asking a little lamb, "Who made thee?" Blake leaves no room for guesswork. "Who made thee?" is a question that all of us have asked. The question, of course, has taken different forms and has been the subject of thinking since the time of the Greek philosopher Socrates. An example of this is the big bang theory. Blake’s answer for this question would be that a creature could only exist because a creator has made them. In this poem, Blake leaves no other answer but that somebody made everything. It's a personal question, "Who made thee?" Who is the who? It must be somebody. It can't be chance. It can't be an unfriendly being. It must be a person who created the lamb and a little boy, according to Blake in this poem: "Little Lamb I'll tell thee! He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb; He is meek & he is mild, He became a little child;" Blake affirms/confirmed to be true with the Protestants and Roman Catholics, that the God of the world and everything in it is "Gave thee life & bid thee feed . . . Softest clothing woolly bright;" is the Lamb. Jesus was called the Lamb many times in the New Testament, most particularly in Revelation 5:8-13: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain . . . Blessing and honour and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” I think that Blake knew the old and new testament of the bible really well as he came up with the concept of the lamb. The Lamb" is a poem which glorifies the creator of the lamb. It has the feeling of a nursery rhyme through the use of repetition and a simply rhyme scheme. The use of soft, gentle phrases, such as "tender voice" and "little child," also adds to the feeling that this is an innocent poem to read to a young child. The imagery and description of the lamb as "tender," "meek" and "woolly" further supports that nursery rhyme atmosphere.
The idea that the creator is kind and good is shown two was in "The Lamb." First, a series of rhetorical questions followed by an immediate and simple answer: "He is meek, and He is mild." And second, by using the symbol of the lamb to represent the creator. The lamb is perhaps the gentlest creature we can think of, and in Christianity Jesus Christ is often referred to as a lamb. Just as innocence is a much simpler state that that of experience, "The Lamb" is simpler in both designs and concept than "The Tyger." As in Blake's earlier poem, "The Tyger" makes use of rhetorical questioning. However, unlike in "The Lamb," no answer to the questions is provided to the reader. The series of questions leads to.
Out of the two poems I like the lamb. The reason for this is because The Lamb" takes a very innocent approach - the creator is kind and good, and there is no doubt about it. "The Tyger" takes a more experienced approach - asking more questions and not believing right away that the creator is good; after all, a creature such as the tiger was created, so this puts me of this poem. I also feel like I didn’t get the complete message that Blake is trying to give from all the unanswered question.
Unlike the one in Songs of Innocence, "The Chimney Sweeper", in Songs of Experience is very dark and gloom. This poem also seems to be very judgmental and gives motives for everything, but unlike Song of Innocence, the sweeper in this poem does not free himself from his misery.
In the first two lines, Blake gives us an image of a painful child in a state of distress or even in a state of corruption. The colour black seems to be very important because it is used to represent sin against innocence, the colour of the white snow. Blake also shows the same child weeping, when he really means to say sweeping, because that is what has that child in such grief. This stanza ends by someone asking him about his parents, which later end up being responsible for this child’s state. In the second stanza, the child is pictured in a very more happier and playful mood. This soon changes when he decides to tell the stranger more about his parents. They are showed to be punishing their child for being so happy by "clothing in clothes of death and teaching him to sing notes of woe." It is very obvious the sweeper’s feels hate towards his parents for putting him in such sadness, but instead he chooses to hide it by making himself look happy and satisfied.
It is clear in the last Stanza that Blake’s criticizing the Church, especially, and the state for letting a lot of these things happen. During this time many children were dying from being, either, worked to death or from starvation. Neither the state nor the church did anything to stop this and is obviously why Blake feels so much anger towards them. The sweeper’s parents are really no help towards their own child. This makes the reader wonder, if they are worshipping god, the source of good doings, why do they chose to ignore their own child. They would rather turn their heads the other way and instead find love at church.
I think this is a very outstanding poem. It clearly shows Blake’s anger towards society at this time. I also think that he used many of his poems to make people aware of the suffering of people at this time. I also think that he wrote two separate books to give a fuller effect. Songs of Innocence, I think was how people thought that everything was okay. Songs of Experience, in my opinion was to open every ones eyes.
The beginning of this poem introduces to a small boy whose mother has died, and whose father has sold him into a life of chimney sweeping. As the reader, I realized that this young boy no longer has any caretakers, and therefore has no one to love and take care of him. i believe that this young boy is going to be hopeless to a life of hard work and poverty.
I learned in the next stanza the young boy, Tom Dacre, begins his work as a chimney sweeper with his head shaved. We are told that his head is shaved so that the soot would not get into his white hair. This puts the idea into the readers head that the boy is innocent, white being a pure colour, and does not deserve the life he leads. We also hear the voice of the narrator that comforts Tom Dacre with words of kindness.
Tom goes to sleep and has a frightful dream that all of the chimney sweepers were lying in locked black coffins. His dream takes a turn, though, and an angel opens all the locked black coffins with a golden key, and all the chimney sweepers are set free. They are able to cleanse themselves in the river and play in the bright sun. The reader begins to feel hopeful at this point. The young boys are able to play again like young boys are supposed to. They are able to forget for a moment about their lives that are doomed with work and poverty.
Still dreaming and playing among the clouds Tom is told by the angel that if he is good, God will always take care of him. Tom then awakes from the dream, and though his situation has not changed, he still sweeps the chimneys. His outlook on life has changed and he knows that if he does what he is supposed to do he will be taken care of by God forever.
In this poem Tom Dacre's main caretaker is God. When his mother dies and he is abandoned by his father, the two caretakers, Tom is left alone and very frightened. After a dream he is confronted by the fact that God is his father and he no longer feels alone. Although he has been delegated the nasty task of chimney sweeping, he knows that if he does his job well and stays out of trouble he will go to heaven were god will look after him and he will have everything he missed out on in this life.
I think that the message one of the possible meanings of this poem is that no matter how bad life gets, no matter how bad the church is, in the after life you will be with god, and the children are celebrating this meaning.
The other possibility I think is that this belief is a fraud from the church and the society of that time to make the children accept their lives as slaves.
The sixth stanza now describes Tom waking up and him and the other children going back to work. The theory that the children have been conditioned is backed up with the contrast of what the morning was like, cold, while Tom is happy and warm. The last line is clashing and shows the innocence of the children that has been abused by society, as all sweepers do their jobs, but many end up dead, deformed or dying of lung cancer and other lung diseases.
William Blake wrote "The Chimney Sweeper" of "Songs of Innocence" in 1789. This poem shows that the children have a very positive outlook on life. They make the best of their lives and do not fear death. This is quite the opposite in it's companion poem in "Songs of Experience" which was written in 1794. In this poem, the child blames his parents for putting him in the position he was in. He is miserable in his situation and he also blames "God & his Priest & King". This point of view is different from that of its companion poem because the chimney sweeper has been influenced by society and has an "experienced" point of view.