Comparison of ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tiger’ (Blake)

Blakes selection of poetry, ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’ includes a variety of contrasting paired poems. In this essay I will be comparing ‘The Lamb’ and ‘The Tiger’. These poems, like the majority of the other poems in the book, contain themes of religion, and creation.

‘The Lamb’ appears to be rather childish and simple, ‘Little lamb who made thee?’, however when you explore the poem in more depth, it is complex. The poem has high lyrical value, due to the repetitions, so Blake may have intended it to be set to music. In the poem the lamb suggests innocence, and joy, Blake expresses his feeling by using vocabulary such as, ‘life’, ‘delight’, ‘bright’, and ‘tender’. A lamb needs protecting, as it is, ‘mild’ and ‘meek’ (‘The Shepherd’ a poem later in the collection, expresses the feelings of Christ protecting the innocence of his flock). The poem has high religious value, as in this poem Blake appears to write as an ort...