1 "The Lamb" is a poem by William Blake, published in Songs of Innocence in 1789. Like many of Blake's works, the poem is about Christianity. The whole collection is pervaded with a breath of simplicity and fancy.
Poetic structure
1rhyme scheme: AA BB CC DD AA AA EF GG FE AA
“The Lamb” has two stanzas, each containing five rhymed couplets. 2The layout is set up by two stanzas with the refrain: "Little Lamb who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?"
In the first stanza, the speaker wonders who the lamb's creator is; the answer lies at the end of the poem. Here we find a physical description of the lamb, seen as a pure and gentle creature. In the second stanza, the lamb is compared with the infant Jesus, as well as between the lamb and the speaker's soul. In the last two lines the speaker identifies the creator: God.
Rhetorical devices
1 The poem begins with the question, “Little Lamb, who made thee?” The speaker,
a child, asks the lam
b about its origins: how it came into being, how it acquired its particular manner of feeding, its “clothing” of wool, its “tender voice.”
2 In the next stanza, the speaker attempts a riddling answer to his own question: the lamb was made by one who “calls himself a Lamb,” one who resembles in his gentleness both the child and the lamb.
Repetition in the first and last couplet of each stanza makes these lines into a refrain, and helps to give the poem its song-like quality. The flowing soft vowel sounds contribute to this effect, and also suggest the bleating of a lamb or the lisping character of a child’s chant.
Theme
1 The lamb is a common metaphor for Jesus Christ, who is also called the "The Lamb of God"
2 Blake in the songs of innocence，with childish life's point of view，shows a full of love and kindness, compassion and happy world. The poem has just 20 lines, but depicts the character of gentleness vividly.
3 The poet’s description about the lamb’s kindness and gentleness, aims to express their feeling of life and nature, and the yearning for the universe and harmonious understanding.
4 He not only sings praise of gentle lamb, but also the mystical power that can create the lamb. Here the God, Jesus and the Lamb are just the one thing.
The Tyger
Tyger! ︳Tyger! ︳ burning ︳bright
In the ︳forests ︳ of the ︳ night,
What im ︳ mortal ︳ hand or ︳ eye
Could ︳ frame thy ︳fearful ︳ symmetry?
Analysis: In the this verse, the author compares the fierceness of a tiger to a burning presence in dark forests. He wonders what immortal power could create such a fearful beast.
* Line 1 is an example of synecdoche(提喻), a literary device used when a part represents the whole or the whole represents a part. In line 1 "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright" alludes to the predator's eyes.
In what ︳distant ︳ deeps or ︳ skies
Burnt the ︳fire of ︳thine eyes?
On what ︳ wings dare ︳ he as ︳ pire
What the ︳ hand, dare ︳seize the ︳fire?
Analysis: Here the poet compares the burning eyes of the tiger to distant fire that only someone with wings could reach. The poet wonders where such a powerful fire could have come
And what ︳shoulder, ︳ and what ︳art,
Could ︳twist the ︳ sinews ︳of thy ︳heart
And when ︳thy heart ︳ began to ︳ beat,
What dread ︳ hand？and ︳ what dread ︳feet?
Analysis: In the third stanza we have a metaphor giving us a vision a skillful and powerful blacksmith creating the tiger's beating heart awakening a powerful beast. The phrase “...twist the sinews of thy heart" is also an allusion to a hardheartedness that a beast of prey must have towards the creatures it kills.
What the︳hammer?︳what the ︳chain?
In what︳furnace︳was thy ︳brain?
What the︳anvil?︳what dread ︳grasp
Dare its ︳deadly ︳terrors ︳clasp?
Analysis: This verse continues the allusion to a creator, who, having made the fearsome beast, must confront with the sheer terror of a tiger's nature
When the ︳stars threw ︳down their ︳spears,
And wa ︳ter’d hea ︳ven with ︳their tears,
Did he ︳smile his ︳work to ︳see?
Did he ︳who made ︳the Lamb ︳make thee?
Analysis: In the fifth stanza,the author, with beautiful rhetoric (personification),describes a marvelous creation process likening starlight to a symbolic destructive process.
The author wonders whether the creator of the fierce and predatory tiger could make the docile, gentle lamb. He sees a conflict between the creation of heartless, burning predator and its potential victim, the lamb.
