(Song of innocence and experience)
About the poem
‘The Lamb’ is a poem from collection of “song of innocence” written and published by William Blake in 1789. It is a lyrical poem that describe innocence of a child and refers to the mystery of creation.
Theme of the poem
The theme of the poem is based on religion, innocence and morality, throughout the poem we can see the continuous appreciation for god and what he has created, ‘The Lamb’, or Christ, should be a source of celebration for all who see or hear him its innocence is the most important feature in the poem.
Forms of the poem
The poem “The Lamb” has two stanzas, containing each with five rhymes couplet. The rhymes are followed as AA BB CC DD, and the end word of each line of stanza makes them melodious, for example delight-bright, voice-rejoice, feed-meek, the poem is written in trochaic meter.
Tone of the poem
The poem has joyful and truthful tone by which an image of a child (speaker) talks directly to the lamb.
Summary and Explanation
In the first stanza of ten lines, poet describe how a little innocent child sees a lamb and asks who made you, also the little lamb who has been blessed with life and with the capacity to feed by the stream and over the meadow. It has been endowed with bright and soft wool which makes cloth also its voice is so tender and fills the valley with joy, who is the creator of all.
The innocent child repeatedly asks the little lamb about its creator, also he says that don’t you know who has created you. This question repeatedly asks by the child throughout the first stanza. The child also wants to know who glow his life, who feed him while living along the river over the meadow. He also curiously wants to know from the lamb, who supplied him with a pleasant body cover (wool) which is soft and shinning and used to make clothes.
The child also asks the lamb, who gave him such a delicate bleating voice, which resounds a happy note in the surrounding valleys. The first stanza completely marked by child’s innocent.
In the second stanza, there is an identification of the lamb, Christ and the child. The lamb identified as Christ, because he is meek and mild like lamb. Christ was also a child when he first appeared on this earth as the son of god. Therefore, the following lines describes that, “He become a little child, “I a child thou lamb “. The child in this poem speaks to the lamb as if the lamb were another child and could respond to what is being said. The child shows his deep joy in the company of the lamb who is just like him, meek and mild. Therefore, the poem conveys the purity and innocent of child and the affections that he feels for the little creature i.e. the lamb.
The third and last stanza of the poem, the poet depicts the image of Christ as a child and in this, the lamb, the child himself proceeds to answer the questions he has asked in the first stanza. The child says that the person who has created the lamb and gives him many privileged is himself (by name of the lamb) it is Jesus Christ who Calls himself a lamb. Jesus Christ is meek (submissive ) and mild (soft natured) and he become child for the sake of mankind. That simply means, the narrator is a child, he is a lamb and they both are called by Christ’s name. The poem is in the from of dialogue and questions answers where its first stanza is descriptive and rural, while the second focuses on abstract spirulina matters and consists of analogy and explanation.
The lamb is the William Blake’s one of the best-known poems from his collection and regarded as one of the great lyrics of English poetry.
The Literary World 