Compare the similarities and differences between Blake's 'The Lamb' and 'The Tyger'

Authors Avatar

Emma Walford                                                                                          

Compare the similarities and differences between Blake’s ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tyger’

William Blake was a romantic 1st generation poet who was born on November 28th 1757, into a lower class family. Blake discovered his skill for the arts at a young age as him enthusiasm to paint inspired his work. He was sent to a drawing school at an early age. The education Blake received was minimal as he learnt only to read and write. Blake may have lacked traditional education however he was fluent in both Greek and Latin and had a vast knowledge of biblical works.

                A major event in Blake’s life was the death of his brother Robert, through Consumption.Robert’s death inspired William to strive to gain ever more intellectual knowledge especially to gain from and to pursue spiritual knowledge. Blake retained this throughout his life.

                   At the age of ten, William tried desperately to convince his Father he had witnessed the visitation of an Angel sitting in a tree. The materialisation of God’s messenger enhanced Blake’s faith, as he was already a devote Christian. Blake’s witnessed many more visitations such as the appearance of Gods face in a window. These occurrences affected Blake’s believes and this is demonstrated throughout his works, both in poetry and engraving. He believed a poet such as himself should also act as a prophet, to inform his audience of future events.

        William Blake had a great aversion towards the Monarchy and also the Church. Blake believed that the church was corrupt and its solitary concern was to gain money from the Christians who worshipped in its buildings. Blake believed that the Church’s outlook on subjects such as child poverty, child abuse and child slavery i.e. Children working long hours as chimney sweeps. His deep disgust of the mistreatment of children is illustrated throughout Songs on innocence.

                          Blake was enormously conscious of the demise of morals in society and believed the world had desensitised. The world was advancing and leaving behind the beautiful, natural world in return for a innovative, industrialised lifestyle. Blake believed due to war, societies had began not to view evil in the same light as past ills were view as in earlier times, as these sins were now view as being acceptable. Blake thought that society failed to see such evils as child cruelty, prejudice and animal cruelty He saw them as being unacceptable behavioural practises. Blake reflects his view on society and the evil contained within it in The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience. Blake’s works act upon the notion that we all have a soul is divided into two opposing parts, a state of innocence and a state of wrath. People witness their own wrath through the evil demonstrated in society. Blake portrayed his work on the viewpoint that we need elements, anger and innocence to survive and we can only appreciate the harmless simplicity of innocence when faced with the wrath of a threatened insecure world. Blake himself experienced poverty thought his life. Blake believed we need to have wrath to see the beauty of innocence. An example of Blake’s views on innocence is illustrated in his poem ‘Infant Joy’.

Join now!

                    The intention of a poet is to convey the feelings of people and the world we live in. Blake involves the attitudes of both himself and the moral majority regarding the realisation that the world God gave us is less than ideal. Blake embraces these subjects which tend to be too precarious make to reference to, and are generally left out of day to day topic discussions. The reason to why Blake does this is for the reason that he feels can achieve a reaction from the public by appealing ...

This is a preview of the whole essay