I've read "The Tyger" and "The Lamb" once before in high school. What always stuck out to me was the two very different outlooks in each poem.
In "The Lamb" Blake links the lamb to Jesus, who is called the lamb of God: "He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb." Blake is paralleling mild and tame creatures to Jesus, who was also mild and well-tempered. In this poem, Blake believes that it makes complete sense that God would create a lamb for the lamb is gentle and kind. In "The Tyger" Blake is expressing his struggle to believe that the same God that created the gentle lamb could create a beastly tiger. He does not see the equality in the two creatures and cannot understand that the same mind could create such different creatures.
The language in "The Lamb" is much like the creature itself: tame and gentle and soothing. There is almost a nuturing, maternal quality to the poem. Blake is asking that God protect this gentle creature that He created. This poem strives to protect innocence in the lamb--which in turn is asking to protecting innocence in all children. "He became a little child: I a child & thou a lamb"
The language in "The Tyger" is harsh and violent, using words like "hammer" "chain" deadly terrors" and "grasp". Blake is confounded that someone who could create something that needs to be protected could also create something fierce and violent, something that could take the innocence from the lamb. He does not wish to believe that the two such different types of things can coexist in our world, created purposefully, both put here for a reason."Did he who made the lamb make thee?"
I feel as though "The Lamb" portrays a very naive outlook. Saying something along the lines of: Bless the innocent children, who are so cute and fragile, and they will all be fine." "The Tyger" expresses a much different person, on the path to realization that not everything in this world is soft and beauitful. The speaker of "The Tyger" is on his way to an epiphany that will mature and age him. It is, I think, I realization that all children have as they grow up. The speaker of "The Lamb" calls himself a child, but I think that "The Tyger" is from the point of view of the same person, but the person has grown and learned to question the world more. He is learning that not all edges are curved. Some are sharp.
Based on what we talked about in class the other day regarding sublime and the beautiful, I would say that "The Lamb" is an example of the beautiful (oh, the little baby lamb is so cute) and "The Tyger" is an example of the sublime (a terror inducing beast that instill awe on all of those who gaze upon it!).
Caroline, while I think you have made some very valid points, I disagree with your opinion that Blake cannot understand why God would make two such different creatures. I think the reason why he DOES understand this is because God created the lamb to represent the innocence of mankind and then made the tiger to portray the fierceness within man. So essentially, the lamb, the tiger, God and mankind may all be one in the same, since there are many sides to humans. In the lines, For he calls himself a Lamb;/He is meek and he is mild,/ He became a little child;/ I a child & thou a lamb,/ We are called by his name. The speaker is telling the reader that he is a lamb and so is God since we are called by the same name. Therefore, we are made from the same God, much like the tiger was made from God and is God and is mankind as well. Maybe the tiger is like you said something that we experience more as we grow older and wiser and start to lose the innocence that we once knew in childhood, but still part of the same person. That's something to think about for sure!
ReplyDeleteAlso I think its good that you pointed out that the lamb represents something beautiful and the tiger is sublime! I thought that too when I was reading the poems. I really enjoyed these poems, Blake is so interesting to read! Good job.
-Megan Harpel