The Lamb and The Tyger

“Songs of Innocence and Experience” is a collection of William Blake’s poems. The Lamb and
The Tyger belong to this collection. The author wrote many poems that contrast with each other,
and these are two of them. The contrast shows the differences between childlike innocence and
worldly experience. In both poems Blake explores the ideas of the good and the evil in the same
person. It is clearly reflected in the figures of the lamb (representing the innocence) and the tiger
(representing the evil or the experience). This piece of writing intends to analyze the pairing in
relation to poetic devices, literary devices, and themes.

Many poetic devices are used by the author in both poems, these ones are clues of the literay style
of the epoch: Romanticism. Blake wanted to portray the fearsome and yet magnificent image of a
tiger and the creation of a gentle lamb. In “The lamb” There are two stanzas, each having five
rhyming couplets in it. In addition, there are two constructive lines in a couplet usually in the same
meter and joined by rhyme such as; “Little Lamb God bless thee. Little Lamb God bless thee.” . The rhyme
scheme followed by the entire poem is AABBCCDD. In “The tyger” There are six stanzas, each
stanza has four lines in it. Also, each stanza is a quatrain as the first one or the second one. The
rhyme scheme followed in the entire poem is AABB.

In relation to literary devices, both poems use many elements to create a detailed picture in the
readers mind. There are rhyming couplets, alliteration, imagery, repetition, rhetorical questions as
well as many biblical references. There is Assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds in the same
line such as the sound) For example in “Tyger Tyger, burning bright” and /ae/ sound in “Dare its
deadly terrors clasp!” or the sound of /e/ in “By the stream & o’er the mead” (in “The lamb”).
Another literary device the author uses in both poems is the repetition of consonant sounds in the
same line such as the sound - Alliteration of /t/ and /b/ in “Tyger Tyger, burning bright” and the
sound of /f/ in “Dare frame thy fearful symmetry” or the repetition of consonant sounds in the same
line such as the sound of /l/ in “Little Lamb I’ll tell thee”; /h/ and /m/ sounds in “He is meek & he is
mild” (“The lamb”). Imagery and symbolism are also shown to show the unique creation of God
such as, “What immortal hand or eye,”, “Burnt the fire of thine eyes?” and “In the forests of the
night.” or in “The lamb” The poet has used images such as, “Softest clothing wooly bright”, “He
became a little child:” and “By the stream & o’er the mead.” to make the readers perceive things
with their five senses. Symbolism appear in “The lamb” when the author uses symbols to signify
ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings different from their literal meanings. “Lamb”
and “child” both are the symbols of chastity, and innocence. In “The tyger” symbolism is
represented by the evil and beauty too, “the forest of the night” represents unknown challenges, “the
blacksmith” represents the creator and “the fearful symmetry” symbolizes the existence of both
good and evil.

In regard to the themes explored, The Lamb and the Tyger are opposites because “The Songs of
Innocence” in contrast with the “Songs of Experience” are opposites, but seem to bounce off one
another. These both poems suggest God as a creator and the discussion of morals of good and evil.
They are each on the extreme ends of spirituality and in the middle is humanity. God, who made all
the creatures on earth, created the gentle lamb and also created the terrifying tiger. William Blake
wonders why and how God is responsible for creating both things.
However, the poem is more about the creator of the tiger than it is about the tiger itself. In
contemplating the terrible ferocity, the power and the mysterious of the tiger, the speaker is at a
loss to explain how the same God who made the lamb could make the tiger. Blake makes us
thinking about this: Are humans incapable of completely understand the mind of God? How could it
be possible?

In conclusion, when we think about the poems title, we can consider the “contrary states” of
innocence and experience as they are both in different collections. Despite of this, we should
consider the collections are joined together, even though they originally appeared in different
volumes, 'The Tyger' and 'The Lamb' are connected if we read them closely, as it has been stated in
the previous lines.

References:

• British Literature - https://surveyofbritishliterature.wordpress.com/2018/03/22/william-

blakes-the-tyger-and-the-lamb/

• London Coffler- https://medium.com/@londonskoffler/the-lamb-and-the-tyger-

b972105d74d1

• Poets.org - https://poets.org/poems/william-blake