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The Tyger and The Lamb

 

            Before we jump into the 'The Tyger' and 'The Lamb,' let's discuss the larger bodies of work the poems belong to. In 1789, William Blake printed a collection of nineteen poems called "Songs of Innocence" (which contained 'The Lamb'). Five years later, in 1794, Blake printed a collection of twenty-six poems entitled "Songs of Experience" (which contained 'The Tyger'). After this, the two volumes were published together as a collection called "Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul". The title encourages us to consider the 'contrary states' of innocence and experience as we read the poems in both collections. Through a cycle of unanswered questions, Blake motivates the readers to question God. These two poems are meant to be interpreted in a comparison and contrast. 'The Lamb' and 'The Tyger' share two different perspectives representing an innocent and an experienced view of creation and existence. To Blake, innocence is not better than experience. Both states have their good and bad sides. The positive side of innocence is joy and optimism, while the bad side is naivety. The negative side of experience is cynicism, but the good side is wisdom. .
             The main question that Blake is asking in the two poems is how can the same God make an animal as innocent as the lamb and also make a vicious animal like a tiger. God created all creatures great and small, and he could not have created two creatures more different from each other than the lamb and the tiger. The tiger and the lamb are just vehicles for Blake to express what he feels happens to people as they grow, develop and eventually become perverted by the world around them. In the poems, "The Tyger" and "The Lamb", William Blake uses symbolism, tone, and rhyme to express the theme that God can create good and bad creatures. .
             In his book "Songs of Innocence", in choosing a lamb for the subject, Blake immediately symbolizes it as representing Jesus Christ.


Essays Related to The Tyger and The Lamb

1. The lamb and the Tyger

The Tyger signifies a duel purpose in this poem. ... The Tyger may very well be the image of God that man has twisted and conformed to fit into the experienced world society has become, and by this event, He is no longer one with man as He was in the Lamb. ... The Tyger(Songs of Experience) Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry In what distant deeps or skies. ... Tyger Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry! The Lam...

  • Word Count: 1106
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

2. William Blake - The Lamb and the Tyger

Blake discusses that the creator of the lamb also calls Himself a Lamb. ... The poem begins with the opening hurdle of metaphor, "Tyger Tyger, burning bright-. ... "The Lamb- and "The Tyger- are the two contrary poems, which when first read, form an instant link in the reader's mind. ... The lamb is an emblem of innocence, corresponding to the tyger as the emblem of experience. The two contrary states of the human soul expressed in the subtitle of Songs of Innocence and Experience are nicely embodied in the ideas of these two animals - the lamb and the tyger. ...

  • Word Count: 2099
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. the tyger and the lamb

The lamb emphasises a "blind faith", where the Tyger represents a skeptical doubt. ... In "The Tyger" this imagery is completely discarded, the meek and mild lamb, is replaced with a raging force of danger and chaos. ... But what is more striking is the direct changes from "The Lamb" to "The Tyger". ... The utopia of Jerusalem is lost from "The Lamb" to "The Tyger" and converted into a much grimmer imagery, suggesting that experience like the imagery in the Tyger is both dangerous and destructive. ... And this was often the turning point from innocence to experience, or from "The Lamb", to...

  • Word Count: 2271
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Tyger Tyger

"The Lamb" and "The Tyger" are two animals created by and immortal being and both of the, have to coexist with one another on this planet. ... In the poem "The Lamb" the main method used throughout the poem is the use of answers and questions directed and the lamb. ... In the poem "The Tyger" the same method of answers and questions are used but this time they are toward the Tyger. ... The connection I drew between the two poems is that they talk about the creation of the beasts the Lamb and the Tyger. ... The Lamb is soft, pretty, and a prey while the Tyger is fearful, dreadful, and a pr...

  • Word Count: 326
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Predator and Prey as One (Tyger Tyger)

Tyger! ... The writing style makes it seem the Lamb grew up and became the Tyger. Let us take a look at the two books of poems that The Lamb and The Tyger came from. ... I believe that the Tyger is the Lamb experienced and all grown up. ... (Norton, 54) The final line of The Tyger would then not the first question of the poem repeated, but a question asking who warped the gentle lamb into the form that of a freighting Tyger. ...

  • Word Count: 593
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

6. The Lamb And The Tyger

The lamb's counterpart from the Songs of Experience, "The Tyger" involves scenes of harsh jungle and a fearless creature stalking its" prey, with a much depressing diction. ... "The Tyger" is a rather different poem than "The Lamb" with images of "fire," (6) "hammer," (13) "furnaces," (14) and "spears" (17). ... Like "The Lamb," Blake opens "The Tyger" with a question in stanza one, "What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" ... In "The Tyger" the imagery is more infernal than heavenly. ... Blake's vision of creative force in the universe made a balance of inn...

  • Word Count: 1062
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Interpretation: "The Tyger"

Interpretation: "The Tyger" This poem is from Songs of Experience, so the generally accepted symbolism of it is that the Tyger represents experience and the Lamb innocence. However, other interpretations state that the Tyger represents the sensual and the Lamb the sensuous, another that the Tyger represents, "the Body," and the Lamb, "the Soul." Another interpretation goes so far, as to say, that the Tyger represents the physical world, and the Lamb the spiritual. ... The Tyger is beautiful, but at the same time fierce and terrible, with "fearful symmetry." ... Blake wonders what kind of c...

  • Word Count: 377
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

8. The Lamb and The Tiger

"THE LAMB" and "THE TYGER" In both poems, the speaker asks them by their origins. In The Lamb we get an answer, but it does not occur in The tyger, although this last poem is longer we do not have an explicit answer. We have in both poems the adjective "bright" in their description but expresses different things: in The Lamb, the animal is described as "wooly bright", which means tenderness; in the tyger is "burning bright", which is a rough definition. In The Lamb the author is identified as a child. ... In The Tyger the predominant feeling is surprise, admiration, fear (awe). ...

  • Word Count: 310
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Nature vs. Industry as shown in "The Lamb" and "the Tyger"

The two poems, "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," both by William Blake, can be analyzed and applied in many different ways. ... Later in the poem, Blake compares the lamb with Jesus Christ, The son of the Father whom himself created the lamb, and all that is beautiful and innocent. ... "The Tyger", in strong contrast to "The Lamb," is mysterious and malevolent, offering hints of destruction and doom. The opening lines of the poem "Tyger, Tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night," shows early on in the poem that this "tiger" is capable of destroying the forests, which themselves are a bea...

  • Word Count: 498
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School