First, let us remember that this poem, as with so many of
Blake's poems in his Songs of Innocence and Experience, are really meant to be studied
alongside their counterparts. In this case, Blake set "The Lamb" against his other great
poem, "The Tiger". Both poems are alike in that the speaker in both poems asks who made
the tiger and the lamb respectively. Actually, I would take issue with your question,
because in "The Lamb", this question is answered, albeit indirectly, whereas it is in
"The Tiger" that the question remains unanswered.
The first
stanza of "The Lamb" poses the question:
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Little Lamb, who made
thee?
Dost thou know who made
thee?
The rest of the first
stanza features excellent examples of imagery that create a picture of the innocence and
tenderness of the lamb. For example, we are presented with an image of the lamb feeding
"By the stream and o'er the mead" and we also see the wool of the lamb as "Softest
clothing, wooly, bright."
It is in the second stanza that
we are given the answer to the question posed at the beginning of the
poem:
He is
called by thy name,For He calls himself a
Lamb.He is meek, and he is
mild;He became a little
child.
Reference to the
person who refers to himself as a "Lamb" makes it clear that the answer to the question
is Jesus Christ. However, what is key to realise is that this Song of Innocence gives us
an easy, simple answer, reflecting perhaps the child-like nature of the speaker. In "The
Tiger", the speaker appears to be more adult-like who believes that there are no easy
answers to such complex questions. Both reflect different perspectives within
Christianity.
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