William Blake's "the Lamb"

WILLIAM BLAKE'S "THE LAMB"

BRITTANY TIMBLIN

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH 102-D26

12-2-2013

WILLIAM BLAKE'S "THE LAMB"

Thesis:

William Blake's "The Lamb" is a very spiritual, natural and a non-materialistic poem. It discusses a very important question to most Christian's, who made thee? 'The Lamb' appears to be about a child asking the beautiful young lamb questions, the lamb appears to be living in the bright English countryside, but we can see on a deeper level that the lamb is in fact Jesus. The lamb is described to have the same characteristics as Jesus (meek, mild, peaceful and innocent).

In this poem by William Blake the lamb symbolizes God himself. When a child is thought of, innocence comes to mind, the same goes for a lamb. All human beings are to walk in this innocence. "In this interpretation of children the speaker may possibly be trying to use ignorance as an excuse for sin in his life. The lamb's natural gifts are clearly envied by the speaker, the gifts being food, shelter, and happiness. William Blake may have used this scene of fertile valleys to allow the reader to also feel the envy towards the lamb's peaceful existence" (essaypride.com, n.d.).

Blake's poem has two stanzas and has five couplets in each stanza, each stanza has ten lines and six syllables, which is the AABB rhyme scheme. This poem is also narrated in first person. In the first stanza each line rhymes with the next, which is a total of five rhyming parts in the first stanza. In the first stanza each line appears to rhyme with the next but the second stanza is different. In the second stanza "Lamb" and "name" do not rhyme, but the additional lines appear to have the rhyming ending. Blake keeps the rhymes close knit and simple to express the sounds of faultless girls and boys and their guideless tones. The subdued vowel sounds and the repeating of the "I" sound can implement the gentle bleating of a lamb. The first two lines and the last two lines of each stanza appear to be very close, which is like the contents to a song.

In the first stanza, William Blake begins with "Little Lamb, who made thee?" A child's voice speaks and asks the lamb how it came to be. If close attention is paid, it is seen that the first stanza is questions only. The voice asks how the lamb chooses where it feeds. The voice asks