A Cheat Sheet About William Blake And “THE LAMB” Poem

 It’s structured in two verses (two stanzas), each containing 5 rhymed couplets.

First Verse: Has questions about creation. The child’s question is a simple one yet is also
tapping into deep&timeless questions that all human beings have about their own origins
and the nature of the creation. (Rural&Descriptive)

Second Verse: The question is answered by himself. He realizes that there must be a creator/
a God. Second verse contains explanation and analogy ( Focusing on absract spiritual
matters). In the second verse the “real” question converts into rhetorical one.

 Instead of using iambic meter, trochaic meter is used.

Trochee: is a unit of rhythm consisting of two beats. (First hard beat the soft beat, it’s like
Dum Di Dum Di Dum). Both “The Lamb” and “The Tiger” has trochaic rhythm.

 There’s union between the landscape and the creatures.

“Blessing With Life”

 William Blake uses 2 Rhetoric Techniques: Personification and Symbolism

Personification: Valleys (the landscape and the animals, the objects) are given humanly
qualifications, such as human emotions or ability to think
“Almost human like”

 Assonance and alliteration is frequently used in Blake’s poems. Repetition is also frequently
used in his poems.
“M” emphasizing Jesus’ and God’s mildness and meekness metaphorically
“L” emphasizing luminious side of the creation.

 There are switches in perspective (Unexpected changes) then again perspective is changed.

 He uses juxtaposition technique in his Works. (Comparison&Contrasting). According to him,

religion includes the good and clear as well as the terrible and inscrutable.

 According to him everything co-exists with its own antonym, everything happens in duality
(Good&Evil, Dark&Light, Intuition&Experience etc.) In other words, everything has other
side.

 The first and second lines have 6 syllables, the rest lines have 7 syllables.
 The tradional images are used in “THE LAMB”
The Lamb: symbolizes God and Christianity
The Child: symbolizes Jesus.

 There is a textual analysis of the Bible (New Testament) in his Works.

 Songs Of Innocence: Positive aspects of conventional Christian belief. Innocent,pastoral
World of childhood. Dramatizes the naive hopes&fears. Meek virtue represented.

 Motto of the “Songs Of Innocence” : “The Child of Innocence lives by intuition, enjoys a
spontaneous communion with nature and sees the divine in all things.”

 Songs Of Experience: Presence of suffering and evil. An adult world of corruption and
repression. ”Transformation”

 Many poems fall into pairs so that the same situation is seen through the lens of innocence
first and then experience. (Two different perspectives.). Exhibits opposing and darker forces.

 “THE LAMB” is a pastoral and didactic poem.

 Blake’s political radicalism intensified during the years leading up to the French Revolution.
He disapproved of Enlightenment rationalism, of institutionalized religion, and of the
tradition of marriage in its conventional legal and social form (though he was married
himself). His unorthodox religious thinking owes a debt to the Swedish philosopher
Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), whose influence is particularly evident in Blake’s The
Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

 His contemporaries saw him as something of an eccentric—as indeed he was. Suspended

between the neoclassicism of the 18th century and the early phases of Romanticism, Blake
belongs to no single poetic school or age.
 William Blake’s poetry is as delighted as it is  challenging, and its wide appeal ranges from the
deceptive cadence of his lullaby-like pastorals and songs to the troubling notes of  the
tragedy of the lapsed soul and the stormy music of the prophetic works. The writings of Blake
may be classified under the following literary heads:
1. Lyrical poems, including songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
2. Irregular rhyme-less verse
3. Rhythmic prose & Descriptive and critical prose.

 Blake wrote in an era of great social and political upheaval. The democratic ideals of the
French Revolution of 1789—the year of the first publication of Songs of Innocence—
undoubtedly influenced him. But in politics Blake aligned with no particular system or
idealism; he speaks always for the primacy of the individual and the imagination.

 a reading of Blake as social critic should always keep in mind the transcendent, humane
values of the imagination and of the self unrestricted by narrow social convention; for these
values formed the core of his moral code.

 Dedicated to God

 “Having a tender voice” “Being meek& mild” these lines implicitly refer to the attributes of
Christ whilst also showing the child's Wonder and curiosity of how he came about to exist.

 Question and answer format is used in this poem.