William Blake (1757-1827) was a master at the English language, espically when it came to poetry, and often wrote on issues that are still important today. In his best works, "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience," Blake uses his poetic talent to address the political and relgious ideas of his age. The poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," published in Songs of Innocence and of Experience, uses the symbolism of two different animals to explain how all things, good and evil, come from God. .
William Blake often used two different poems to prove or argue a point. His poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger" contrasts two animals to make the reader think, "How can God make something as good as a lamb and something as evil as a tiger?" The lamb, symbolizing good, is often the pray for such animals as the tiger, symbolizing evil, which leads to the debate of why God, the supreme being, let good things co exsist with bad thing. In "The Lamb" Blake uses a easy rhymes scheme and descriptive words that remind the readers of pleasant things and also allow the ready to appreciate the qualities of the lamb; however, in "The Tyger" Blake uses a fast paced rhyme scheme with dark words that portray images of evil things to the reader. Both poems are considered masterpieces and coexsist to form a puzzling question for the readers.
In the poem "The Lamb", Blake uses a familiar animal to depict that good things come from God. Blake chooses to uses the lamb because in the Bible, Jesus is often refered to as the Lamb of God. The typical thought of a lamb is a soft, woolly, and defenseless animal. Blake uses the typical thought of a lamb along with a simple AA rhyme scheme in the first 10 lines and AABCAABCAA rhyme in his final 10 lines to thouroughly portray the characteristics of a gentle lamb. Throughout the poem Blake uses adjectives that create imagery of beautiful things to give the reader a mental image of a soft, gentle little lamb that is harmless.
