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William Blake's "The Tyger" Versus "The Lamb"

William Blake composed the poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger" to exemplify opposing views of creation. "The Lamb" represents innocence using simple language and imagery, while "The Tyger" depicts the horrors of the world in a darker style. Together, the poems show the "two contrary states of a human soul" and that good and evil both exist in God and creation.

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Haneen Al Ibrahim
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1K views3 pages

William Blake's "The Tyger" Versus "The Lamb"

William Blake composed the poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger" to exemplify opposing views of creation. "The Lamb" represents innocence using simple language and imagery, while "The Tyger" depicts the horrors of the world in a darker style. Together, the poems show the "two contrary states of a human soul" and that good and evil both exist in God and creation.

Uploaded by

Haneen Al Ibrahim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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William Blake’s “The Tyger” versus “The Lamb”

William Blake composes two beautiful pieces of work that exemplify


his ideas on the nature of creation. The two pieces, "The Lamb and The
Tyger", are completely opposite views, which give questionable doubt about
most people's outlook of creation. These two poems are meant to be
interpreted in a comparison and contrast form showing the "two contrary
states of a human soul." With the poems written six years apart, they
separately come together to establish this third meaning. Obviously Blake
believes that good and evil are in God and that depending on the situation
it’s good to be a tyger or may be good to be a lamb.

“The Lamb” which gives a childlike atmosphere to it is written in very


simple language, but with a deeper meaning. “The Lamb” is supposed to
represent a sense of innocence and naivety, somewhat in comparison to
children. Blake not only believes that God has created us, but also that He
has blessed us. With his use of infantile and somewhat reverent verbiage,
Blake displays a side of creation that is ingenuous and pure. With phrases
such as, "Little lamb, God bless thee" and "He is meek, and he is mild" give
off that idea. Even the arrangement of the poem is one of a didactic method,
somewhat of a call and response sort of concept. The repetition of lines back
to back adds to the whole childlike manner of the work. As for the “Tyger”
the central idea stays the same, but the whole perception is changed around.

“The Tyger” is the darker side of the idea of creation where there are less
joys involved. Blake only displays the horrors of the world in this poem to
separate it almost completely from the “Lamb”. The purity and simplicity
that was displayed in the “Lamb” is not shown in the “Tyger”. With Blake's
use of vivid imagery such as, "fire", "hammer", "furnace", "chain", "anvil",
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and "spears" and the use of austere action words such as, "burnt", "seize",
"twist", "beat", "grasp", "clasp", and "threw" creates specific relentless
connotations.

“The Tyger” is a representative poem of Songs of Experiences and


“The Lamb” is of Songs of Innocence. The two poems represent the two
aspects of Jesus Christ. Blake signifies the two poems with vivid and extra-

ordinary Biblical image. (‫)مهم‬

Tiger is spelt as Tyger in order to suggest the fierceness, creates a


roaring vibrating sound T-y-g-e-r-r-r…! The tiger is a symbol of wrath,
passion and thus the image of the Christ. Christ includes within Himself the
meekness of the lamb and the wrath of the tiger. The symbolism of the poem
is sometimes paused to an allegorical level, which damages the artistic
effect!

“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”

The tiger is the representative of strength and force to break the bond
of experiences. When the evil becomes so powerful to destroy good,
innocence… a vehement force like tiger becomes necessary to protect them.

Lamb is the symbol of love, pity, joy, virtue and mercy that united the
world of creatures. The lamb is as innocent as a little child. The happy child
discovers God in lamb. Blake through the vision of the child sees this

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meekness of the lamb is alike the passion of the Christ. The lamb is a
typically a good Christian poem. The symbol — “lamb of God”! The Christ
is called the lamb of God. Who sacrifices himself on the wooden cross to
rescue the humankind from the sins? This is a pure religious conception and
that images are drawn from the New Testament.

The child knows instinctively that lamb is God, and God is a child. So
the child told the lamb that—

“I a child, and thou a lamb,

We are called by His name.”

Actually the lamb and the tiger are symbols of two different states of
the human soul. The two sections—Innocence and Experience are contrasted
elements in a single design. The first part sets out an imaginative vision of
the state of innocence and the second shows how life changes, corrupts and
spoils. However, experience is an inescapable fact. It is also a necessary

stage, which is very important in the cycle of life. (‫)مهم‬

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