In “The Lamb” the poem is mainly very well structured and flows. In the first verse it has the questions and in the second verse it has all the answers. If you were only to look at the poem briefly you would believe it was a children’s poem, a hopscotch poem or playground chant, until you remember that Blake could not have known these as he did not attend school. The reader would think this because of the simple vocabulary, and also if you notice, the poem uses soft alliteration -- “little lamb” -- this gave a much softer feel to the poem, obviously putting one in mind of children and their innocence.
Blake was a very holy and pious person. He often out biblical discourse into many of his poems, as I have stated before. I found some plain biblical tones in “The Lamb” -- the next quotation shows this point. “He is meek, and he is mild . . . became a little child”.
This quotation is from the New Testament, where God was forgiving, whereas in the Old Testament God was believed to punish people for their sins i.e. Noah and the Ark, in which God drowns the entire human race apart from Noah and his family. The fact that there is biblical content in “The Lamb” is inspiring and was maybe meant to give a sense of hope. The lack of biblical discussion in “The Tiger” gives the reader a sense of lack if reprieve, lack of hope and a sense of the “prison” of the world and all the terrible social injustice going on. For example, at the time the French and Industrial Revolution were happening which Blake felt were both negative – he lived in England, and the country, so both would affect his own life. The Industrial Revolution affected him in a very different way because people were forced to work in very poor conditions, for not very much money, and as a pious man Blake believed in equality and a better life for all.
If the reader so wishes to look at the structure of both of the poems one will be able to see that “The Tiger” is written in short verses and “The Lamb” written in longer verses. The rhythm of “The Tiger” feels and sounds like the rapid beating, much like the heart beating after running, possibly suggesting the reader is scared. The long slow verses in “The Lamb” reminds the poem’s reader of the slower heart beat when one is calm, and relaxed. The fast beating, drumming rhythm pattern could also have been meant to be used to scare the person who is reading the poem, as it could possibly suggest the marching of the soldiers in the French Revolution, a thing which everyone in Blake’s time was afraid and wary of. Coupled with the picture of Hell and the vengeful “Old Testament” God, it would really worry people in Blake’s time because the tiger was a new creature then, only heard about from explorers and traders to India -- also the mass population of England in the 18th Century were very superstitious.
I think that the message Blake is trying to give in “The Tiger” (which was spelt when he wrote it ‘Tyger’) is that life is very unfair, in his time and perhaps ringing true still today. He was very angry about social injustice, which is why there are so many references to the Industrial and French Revolutions in “The Tiger”. William Blake does this in the poem because he wanted something the readers of his time could relate to, and also to show how he felt about the Revolutions to a wider audience.
Blake uses a lot of visual imagery in the poem to convey his message to the people who were to read it. In “The Tiger” the nobles fought back against the French republic in the French Revolution. Or it could be a reference to the original battle between good and evil. Where the angles threw down their spears towards Satan. The next quotation shows this “when stars threw down their spears and water the heavens with their tears. At the time when Blake wrote his poem, the industrial revolution was going on, and because of his imagery you could almost hear the banging and clanging of the machines and the battles of the French Revolution. The next quotation show this “What the hammer …what the anvil” This reminds us of a blacksmith, banging on the anvil with the hammer, like the noise of the machines was making in the Industrial Revolution.
Also, when you count it all up, “The Tiger” is fifteen questions, and no answers, whilst “The Lamb” has seven questions, and answers to all of the questions. Maybe what William Blake is trying to say that the world was, and will always be, a very confused place, and no one knows any answers to any of the important questions?
There is usually an opposite poem from the other book. In this case “The Lamb” is the opposite of “The Tiger”. Before you even read the poem you can tell by the title that they are opposite. The tiger is the predator, and the lamb the prey of the tiger. “The Tiger” brings the mood of force, threatening and danger. The next quotation shows this -- “Burnt the fire in thine eyes”
This sentence has fire in it, perhaps another religious reference as like Hell it is hot, and sticky. India is also hot and sweaty, where the tigers come from, and Blake would have known this. The Lambs brings the mood of tranquillity, reassurance, and gladness. The next quotation shows this, “By the stream and over the mead”
I think this is because a field with sheep and a stream only appears in dreams, particularly in Blake’s time where many people would never have seen fields and streams with sheep in them as they all worked and lived in the huge industrial cities (yet another reference to Blake’s Industrial Revolution troubles) and would not have the time or money to take a trip into the countryside. So it too is like a dream, and a fantasy, and it is also a sign of hope and peace, because in those days the industrial revolution was taking place and fields and open space would be disappearing. In its place would be smoggy factories, slum towns and waste tips. This imagery by Blake I find is very effective in also making us remember the conditions most people (but not Blake) had to live in back in those days.
“The Lamb” is obviously a poem of questions – the main difference form “The Tiger” being that “The Lamb” provides the answers for the reader and the metaphorical lamb in the second verse, whilst the latter’s questions remain unanswered. I personally feel that the poem is asking one main question that is “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”
