Point of Difference between "The Lamb" & "The Tyger" By William Blake

 

By Bipasha

 William Blake born in 1757 in London, was a seminal figure in the poetry and visual arts of The Pre-Romantic Age. Historical Context Blake held radical religious, moral, and political opinions. He disliked and distrusted institutionalized religion. He felt Chistianity encouraged the supression of natural desires and discouraged earthly joy.Historical Context In 1789, William Blake composed a collection of 27 poems entitled Songs of Innocence. Blake etched both the text and a design for each poem onto a copper plate, from which an impression could be printed in ink. Later, the whole print was colored with acid resisting ink. And also these poems are vastly influenced by the French & American Revolution, and stands against the Industrialization of England.Historical Context It was not until 1794-- five years later--he created 27 plates for a set of antithetical poems, Songs of Experience. Only 28 cpoies of his complete collection, Songs of Innocence and of Experiencere are known today, not all have the complete 54 cpoies.Images & symbols The Lamb is one of Blake's most transparent poems. The Lamb & the child are both symbols of innocence & religion. The child who is the speaker of the poem converses with the Lamb in a state of simplicity and self assurance. Properly supplying both the questions and answers almost in the form of a catechism. Most obviously the Lamb comes to represent Jesus Christ and the speaker declares as much. Both the Lamb and the child also represent innocence and purity.Images & symbols Other images that we find in the poem are also symbolic like the stream and Mead depict nature's generosity, freedom and happiness. The wooly clothing represents security, warmth & careand the tender voice of the lamb announces innocence, goodwill & mercy. The poem's most immediate theme is that of goodness and innocence and mankind as well as, in religious faith as seen through the eyes of childhood naivete.Images & symbols All the questions are answered by same child asking them indicating that this is not a probing inquiry but rather a form of catechistic instruction. In innocence a child believes that he has all the answers, this is the quality of innocence, the centainty and inexperience. The boy has been properly indroctinated and without reflection he parrots back his lessons in confidence. His questions appear in the first stranza and his answers appear in the second. Poetic Form As we begin to look at the Poetic Form we note that many of the poem's rhymes are harmonic. Such as words like "Bright" & "Delight" , expressing agreement, immunity, harmony & justice in the speaker's poetic world. All is right or at least seems so in the state of innocence. However, there is one off rhyme repeated in the poem. We find the off rhyme "Lamb" & "Name" twice in the poem, which is the indication that something is a bit off in this state of innocence. Poem's Metre As we consider metre we find another jarring consistency, Blake has chosen to write his poem in Trochaic metre which usually carries a sinister sound, the same menacing metre Shakespeare uses for the lines of the witches in his play Macbeth, because of the Trochaic metre we have feminine rhymes in the repeating couplet at the beginning and end of each stranza.As a final note we cannot miss the fact that the first stranza'a couplets is repeaated at it's conclusion and the second stranza's first and final couplets include repeated lines, this repetition may suggest childhood memorization and it also suggests the answers like the questions are the peoduct of religious instruction not genuine inquiry. Lastly, Blake's artistic depiction confirms the themes of innocence and religious faith. ConclusionImages & Symbol As we transcend to Blake's poem "The Tyger" we find a series of questions none of which are answered. This poem consider the riddle od the universe hoe to reconcile good with evil. The speaker of this poem conveys someone with a jadded experience, pride and even rage unlike the speaker of the lamb who supplies both the questions and the answers this speaker only poses question, he doesn't have any of the answers, as innocence is the voice of centainty, experience is the voImages & Symbol Furthermore, as "The Lamb " continues to represent Jesus Christ in this poem "The Tyger" can be said to represent Satan. The focal question assertiveness is found in line 20 "Did he who made the Lamb make thee" Did the God made Christ made Satan also, and if so the implisit question is "Why" . As the Lamb represent purity and goodnessthe Tyger represent wickedness and evil. How could a loving god create both Other images that we find are also symbolic, the line on what wings dare he aspire suggests the Hubris who flew too close to the Sun This is anOther images that we find are also symbolic, the line on what wings dare he aspire suggests the Hubris who flew too close to the Sun. This is an image of difiance. Images & Symbol The next line what the hand dare seize the fire suggesting the Titan Prometheus who defied the gods by stealing fire for humanity as civilization. The next we find echoing images od Hephaestus with his hammer and anvil, here we can suggest that the tyger ias a kind of weapon created for God to strike us down like one of Zeus's lightning bolt. In all these we find Greek Images & Symbolor Pagan imagery which differs from from the Christian imagery of the Lamb, although we find christian imagery also. Images & Symbol Later we can see the questions become an accusation as it does an inquiry.Poetic Form As we begin to look at the poetic forms we can see the use of the letter "Y" in Tyger, Blake replaces "why" with "Y" because why is the central question of the poem. "Why does God created evil?" is the question. Unlike Lamb in this poem uses rhyme often to depict discord and conflict, Bright is paird with Night in this poem as evil stands opposite to the goodness. The off rhyme is again repeated twice eye and symmetry.Poem's Metre Lastly, unlike the lamb masculine rhymes with Trochaic metre, but here some of the lines are writen in Iambic metre also. The first stranza is repeated at the last with the exceptional word "Dare" replaced from could, the speaker goes from questioning to accusing.The repetition suggest that the question will never be answered.Conclusion "The Tyger" is ultimately less about actual tigers (or other specific frightening things) and more about all the large concepts that humanity finds it difficult to comprehend. God created the world, but the world is full of suffering, pain, hatred and violence. The tiger thus symbols those parts of God (and the world) that humans struggle to reconcile with their idea of God, Thank You......