The two poems, "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," both by William Blake, can be analyzed and applied in many different ways. The similarities as well as the differences in the two poems offer the reader a rainbow of possible meanings. One of the meanings that I feel most strongly about is the conflict that the two poems present between nature and industry. .
Nature has long been a source of inspiration for mankind, especially in the arts of painting, photography, and poetry. The natural human draw to nature comes strongly from its purity, serenity, peacefulness and beauty. "The Lamb" is a poem that gives off an air of placidity with its flowing rhyme, child-like repetition, and soothing imagery. Describing the lamb as having "clothing of delight, softest clothing, woolly bright" really emphasizes the purity and gloriousness of the subject. 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 lamb is a symbol of simplicity at its finest, uncorrupted and perfect.
"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 beautiful part of nature. The motif of fire continues steadily throughout the poem, asking what horrible being is capable of wielding such a power. .
The fourth stanza of "the Tyger reads,.
"What the hammer? What the chain?.
In what furnace was thy brain?.
What the anvil? What dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?".
This stanza introduces many elements that may represent the rise of industry. Hammers, anvils, chains, and furnaces are all tools of industry, and in particular were all used in making the weapons in Blake's time.
Before we jump into the 'The Tyger' and 'The Lamb,' let's discuss the larger bodies of work the poems belong to. ... Throughout the poem the child keeps arguing with the lamb about its nature, as if to repress the lamb's self-worth. ... Blake's "The Tyger" is the contrast poem to "The Lamb". "The Tyger" is the experience of the loss of innocence that "The Lamb" seems to personify. ... Tyger! ...
The lamb emphasises a "blind faith", where the Tyger represents a skeptical doubt. ... There is an emphasise on nature and the topics emphasise belief, as opposed to scientific doubt. This is shown in "The lamb" by the surety of the speaker, that it was God who created the lamb. ... But what is more striking is the direct changes from "The Lamb" to "The Tyger". ... Newton re-established the atomic view of the nature of matter, and as such science grew. ...
The lamb is another name for God as shown throughout many scriptures in the Bible. ... "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?" ... There is also another similarity that suggests both animals are a creation of God, as shown in the first stanzas of both poems, and also that both creatures nature in God. ... Blake's vision of creative force in the universe made...
The revolutionists had been termed "tigers- by the media, and it is possible that the poem was written as a treatise on complex human nature . ... "The Tyger- consists entirely of questions relating to the nature of creation and a supreme being. ... "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. ... He reassures the reader of the gentle and benevolent nature of the creator through the use of repetition and...
"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 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 predator. There has to be that balance in nature and life. ...
Such is the case with the poems The Lamb and The Tyger. ... The Tyger consists of six stanzas, each of them four lines long. ... Major difference in the language used in the two poems is that in The Tyger Blake uses much more diverse words than in The Lamb. ... "The pastoral paradise of The Lamb is juxtaposed with the industrial furnace of The Tyger" (Vines 117). ... The poem The Tyger demonstrates that the world is not always safe. ...
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...
"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). ...
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. ...
