The Lamb

William Blake

Summary

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake is a warm and curious poem that uses the lamb as a symbol for Christ, innocence, and the nature of God’s creation.

Throughout the two stanzas of this poem, the poet speaks to the lamb, asking it if it knows who was responsible for creating it. He goes into vague detail about Christ, his nature, while using repetition to emphasize these features.

Themes

In ‘The Lamb’ Blake explores themes of religion, innocence, and morality. Throughout the lines, he, or his speaker, expresses his appreciation for God and what he represents. The “lamb,” or Christ, should be a source of celebration for all who see or hear him. Its innocence is one of the most important features. All people should strive for the image of the lamb.

Structure

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake consists of two stanzas, each with five rhymed couplets. Repetition in the first and last couplet of each stanza turns these lines into a refrain and helps in providing the poem with its song-like quality. The flowing l’s and soft vowel sounds also make a contribution to this effect, and also bring forth the bleating of a lamb or the lisping character of a child’s chant.

Literary Devices

In ‘The Lamb’ Blake makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to alliteration, enjambment, and repetition. The latter, repetition, can be seen through the use and reuse of lines. For example, “Little Lamb I’ll tell thee” in the second stanza. This increases the nursery rhyme-like sound of the verse. Enjambment is another technique that helps with the flow of this particular poem. For example, the transitions between lines one and two of the first stanza.

Alliteration is a very helpful technique that poets can use to put added emphasis on particular phrases or increase the rhyme and rhythm of the poem. Take for example the words “Little Lamb” in line one of the first stanza and “meek” and “mild” in line five of the second stanza.

Analysis of The Lamb

Stanza One

Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee

Gave thee life & bid thee feed.

By the stream & o’er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing wooly bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice!

Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee

The Lamb is a didactic poem. In this poem, the poet pays a tribute to Lord Christ who was innocent and pure like a child and meek and mild like a lamb. The little child asks the lamb if he knows who has created it, who has blessed it with life, and with the capacity to feed by the stream and over the meadow. The child asks him if the lamb knows who has given it bright and soft wool, which serves as its clothing, who has given it a tender voice that fills the valley with joy.

In the first stanza of ten lines of William Blake’s poem The Lamb, the child who is supposed to be speaking to the lamb, gives a brief description of the little animal as he sees it. The lamb 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 serves as its clothing; it has a tender voice that fills the valley with joy.

The readers here are provided with a true portrait of a lamb. In the poem, the child of innocence repeatedly asks the lamb as to who made him. Does he know who created him (the lamb)? The same question has been put repeatedly all through the first lines of the poem. The child addresses Little Lamb to ask him who made him and wants to ascertain whether he knows who made him. The child wants to know who gave the Lamb his life, who fed him while living along the river on the other side of the meadow. H also wants to know from the Lamb who supplied him with a pleasant body cover (clothing) which is softest, full of wool, and shining.

The Lamb is also asked by the child who gave him such a delicate bleating voice, which resounds a happy note in the surrounding valleys. The stanza is marked by the child’s innocence which is the first stage in Blake’s journey to the truth.

“The Child of Innocence lives by intuition enjoys a spontaneous communion with nature and sees the divine in all things.”

Stanza Two

Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,

Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb:

He is meek & he is mild,

He became a little child:

I a child & thou a lamb,

We are called by his name.

Little Lamb God bless thee.

Little Lamb God bless thee.

In the second stanza of the poem, there is an identification of the lamb, Christ, and the child. Christ has another name, that is, Lamb, because Christ is meek and mild like lamb. Christ was also a child when he first appeared on this earth as the Son of God. Hence the appropriateness of the following lines: “He became a little child:/I a child & thou a lamb,/We are called by his name.” 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. The poem conveys the spirit of childhood – the purity, the innocence, the tenderness of childhood, and the affection that a child feels for little creatures.

A religious note is introduced in the poem because of the image of Christ as a child. The Lamb is a pastoral poem. The pastoral poem note in Blake is another symbol of joy and innocence. In the next ten lines of the second stanza from William Blake’s poem The Lamb, the child himself proceeds to answer the questions he has asked the Lamb in the first stanza. The child says that the person, who has created the Lamb and has given many gifts described in the first stanza, is himself by the name of the Lamb.

It is Jesus Christ who calls himself a Lamb. Jesus the Lamb is meek (submissive) and mild (soft-natured), and he became a child for the sake of mankind. The narrator (I) is a child, he is Lamb and they both are called by Jesus’s name. The Lamb identifies with Christ to form a Trinity of Child, Lamb, and Redeemer (Jesus).

The Lamb by William Blake Notes for exam

The Lamb full notes summary analysis theme