Compare and Contrast 'The Lamb' and 'The Tyger' by William Blake

Jessica Anderson Page

GCSE English Literature

Pre-1914 Poetry Coursework

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

When do we change? When do we change from being the innocent children God sent into the world, to the poisoned, corrupted ones that leave the earth? William Blake’s ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience examine these different states. He wanted to show the two contrary states in a human mind. The Lamb and the Tyger are just vehicles for Blake to express what he feels happens to people as they grow, develop and eventually become perverted by the world around them.

Blake’s background and occupation greatly influenced the style and content of his poems. He lived during the 18th Century when the church was beginning to lose its grip on British society; science was rising up against the church. Blake was part of a group known as the Romantics. He began to challenge the church believing that an individual could discover God without going to church. His poems ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’ reflect this, as he is telling how God created these two animals and on another level how he created humanity.

‘We are called by his name’ (The Lamb)

I think the message that Blake is trying to convey in this line is that it is God who calls us to discover him. He is saying that no one else has the power to tell you what to believe not even the church. God and the individual are the only ones privy to this ultimate power!

His role as an engraver and artist is reflected in the details he gives about the two animals. In The Tyger he describes it as, ‘burning bright.’ He is describing it from a painter’s perspective in the way he is talking of the tiger’s colouring.

At the time Blake was writing The Lamb the French Revolution was taking place. Blake was very supportive of the revolution, as he was deeply concerned about the poor social, economic and political conditions.

‘Little Lamb God bless thee’ (The Lamb)

Blake like many of the other Romantics saw that the best things about life were natural and simplistic. Blake felt that the social, economic and political factors were getting too complicated and the true nature of living was being lost. Certain people had control of these factors and Blake thought this was wrong. Blake felt that the whole population should emancipated and able to decide on their own economic, social and political decisions. When writing the Lamb he was hoping that the French Revolution would revert people back to the innocence and freedom they once had.

But as the French Revolution progressed it turned into a blood bath, which disheartened Blake. It was at this point that he wrote The Tyger.

‘Dare frame thy fearful symmetry’ (The Tyger)

Blake was disgusted with the way the people were using the revolution as an excuse to kill. In The Tyger he talks about only God having the power to create things of this nature. I think that in this line he is trying to convey the fact that no human has the right to take on God’s role. Only he has the right to create ...

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But as the French Revolution progressed it turned into a blood bath, which disheartened Blake. It was at this point that he wrote The Tyger.

‘Dare frame thy fearful symmetry’ (The Tyger)

When I first read The Lamb and The Tyger it appeared to be Blake describing what the lamb and tigers appearance and characteristics.

‘Gave thee such a tender voice’ (The Lamb)

‘Burnt the fire of thine eyes?’ (The Tyger)

Initially glancing through the poem the reader could interpret it as a detailed description about how these two animals were created. It could simply be an explanation of what a lamb and tiger are like and generalising the way they behave.

But I believe that Blake was trying to convey a much deeper message. In my opinion I think Blake is describing to contrasting states in our lives and how are relationship with God changes. Blake in a sense is formulating his own story of creation.

When I think of The Lamb connotations with innocence, purity and peacefulness come to mind, which are characteristics commonly associated with a young child.

‘He I meek and he is mild’ (The Lamb)

Blake uses emotive language to create a picture of a sweet loving lamb. In my mind it creates a picture of beauty. I imagine the Lamb looking timidly into my eyes. This poem evokes feelings pf warmth and love. The Lamb also appears to be a symbol of Jesus. In the Bible Jesus is often referred to as the Lamb of God. This seems to imply that when you are young you are closer to God

The Tyger encourages enormously different pictures. Just the word tiger provokes feelings of aggression and fear; it is a fierce being that is not to be fought with.

‘In what furnace was thy brain?’

Here lie connotations with the devil. The word furnace can be linked with the fire metaphor that is constant throughout the poem. It provokes images of death and destruction, which are all qualities that can be linked with the devil. It is a stark contrast to the lovable wholesome images of the lamb!

The Tyger uses a lot more imagery whereas the Lamb uses a lot more personification. I think Blake is trying to encourage the reader to be more like the lamb by giving it human characteristics. It makes the lamb appear to be more realistic. He wants to draw people away from being too much like the tiger by making it more exotic and fantasy. It is important to remember that at the time the poem was written it would be very unusual for a normal people to actually see a tiger close up. In fact many may not even know what one actually looked like!

‘When the stars threw down their spears’ (The Tyger)

‘Gave thee such a tender voice’ (The Lamb)

The metaphor in the Tyger creates pictures of hostility and war. This line can appear quite fearsome and makes the reader worried about becoming something similar. The Lamb however has qualities that you can associate with people that you care about. The words, ‘tender voice’ create images of people close to me comforting me when I’ve been distressed. It creates feelings of security and safety.

Each poem has its own structure and form that highlight the contrast between them. The Tyger has six stanzas whereas The Lamb only has two. The Tyger is made up of pairs of rhyming couplets that have a strong rhythm.

‘Tyger, Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;’ (The Tyger)

The constant rhythm of the verses makes it sound chant like when read aloud. To me it sounds like a mantra or spell that pagans or witches would chant repeatedly. This sense of a chant adds to the devilish of the piece. You associate these sort of hexing with evil witches trying to curse people and bring pain and suffering to all. The harsh sounding consonant of, ‘t’ adds to the fearful negative image of the tiger. With every couplet said Blake is making the tiger appear more and more wicked and malicious!

The Lamb also uses a series of rhyming couplets but in this case they are only broken down into two stanzas. The first is a series of questions that can sometimes appear rhetorical; the second is Blake answering the questions.

‘Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee’ (The Lamb)

In comparison with The Tyger, The Lamb is almost like a nursery rhyme or simple song. It is not only the use of couplets that make the poem have this feel. The repeated assonance of the vowel sound ‘ee’ adds to the gentleness of the poem. By making this poem resemble something always associated to a child Blake is adding to his belief that when you are young you are closer to God.

Although very different in what the two poems are trying to convey they share some technical devices such as the use of alliteration.

‘Little Lamb’ (The Lamb)

‘Burning bright’ (The Tyger)

This use of alliteration is very important in conveying what both poems mean and inserting a lasting memory in the reader’s head. In The Lamb it emphasises the fact that the lamb is small and innocent, it represents the child’s size but could also be a way of expressing the fact that the child has only spent a little time on earth. I think the use of alliteration in The Tyger is designed stress the importance of the metaphor of fire throughout the poem. The fire can in turn be linked to hell, which the reader can relate to the place were horrific things happen. The reader may link this to the fact that as we become influenced by the world around us we become horrible creatures.

Both The Lamb and The Tyger are symbolic of the other poems in the collection of Songs of Innocence and Experience. The poems share the same characteristics of the other poems in the anthology. The Lamb shares similar qualities to poems such as The Blossom and The Echoing Green.

‘Such, such were the joys

When we all, girls & boys’ (The Echoing Green)

The other poems echo the messages Blake is trying to portray in The Lamb. It has messages of goodness, kindness and the innocence of children. In The Echoing Green it actually refers to boys and girls. He is reflecting on what life was like as children. The poems also use the simplistic language demonstrated here with the word joys. Blake could have used words such as delights but chose to use an uncomplicated word. The poems also display the same nursery-rhymesque rhythm that can be seen in the use of rhyming couplets.

The other poems in Songs of Experience show mirror images of the poems in Songs of Innocence like Tyger is the mirror image of the Lamb. Like The Tyger the other poems show the world as a dangerous and intimidating place. Clear examples of this are London and Infant Sorrow.

‘In every cry of every Man

In every Infant’s cry of fear’ (London)

The poem uses the same sort of language and structure as the Tyger and other poems in the anthology. London shows the city as the cold and desolate place. In this extract Blake is talking about a child’s fear of being in the city. It is showing like the Tyger that the world can be a cruel and heartless place and everyone living in it can be perverted by it even tiny babies!

In conclusion I would say that Blake is trying to convey two very important messages in The Lamb and The Tyger. The messages he is trying to convey are echoed in the other poems from Songs of Innocence and Experience. The first is the emphasis on the lamb and tigers link to God. Blake is creating his own story of creation. In The Lamb Blake talks of all the different elements that need to be constructed and then how God actually does this. The Lamb is created by heavenly powers. In The Tyger he does very much the same with one slight difference. The way in which The Tyger is assembled is man-made. ‘What the hammer? What the chain?’ These are all things that humans have made, so Blake is saying that it is humans that make creatures such as the tiger.

This leads me to what I think is the most important message that the poems show. Even the title of the two anthologies gives a clue, Songs of Innocence and Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. The Lamb and The Tyger are showing two contradictory stages in the human life. The Lamb shows the natural position that a child will begin with when they are born. If a child grew up in total isolation from the world they would remain innocent and pure. I think that Blake’s message is that it is the human world that changes people. In The Tyger he is looking at a creature that has been perverted by the world. The tiger has become cold, angry and heartless and I think Blake believes this is what humans become once they see the true nature of the world. All around the world you can see suffering whether it be war, famine or even just arguments between friends. As people grow they become more exposed to these things and gradually become accustomed to things like this and see them as normal. It is then that people change from being the untainted children God sent to earth to the corrupted adults that leave it.