Season 2 Podcast 9 The Lamb and the Tiger
Love too. William Blake is another of my many favorite poets. The English romantic period began in England in 1798 associated with the publication Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge. Blake was born in London in 1757. He died in 1827. Blake epitomizes the romantic movement. He was given to visions. At age 4 he saw God “Put is head to the window.” In his perambulations, he saw a tree filled with angels. The poems you referred to appear in Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. In Songs of Innocence, he included the lamb. Would you please read that for us.
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
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, and He is mild,
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little lamb, God bless thee!
Little lamb, God bless thee!
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John evoked in his readers the image of Christ being offered as a sacrifice. The genius Blake can pull the wool over your eyes with the simplicity of his language.
The first stanza raises the question of who created the little lamb. The second stanza answers the question but with a twist. Blake describes Jesus, “He is meek, and He is mild, He became a little child.” The next couplet says a peculiar thing: “I a child, and thou a lamb.” We must look at the pronoun reference. Who is “I” and more importantly who is “thou”? All pronouns in the poem referring to Christ are capitalized. The pronoun “Thou” isn’t. It appears Blake is referring to himself and his readers and not to Christ. Blake then he uses the pronoun “we” He said, “We are called by His name.” Before Christ we are both his children and his lambs. In other words he is our creator and our shepherd. In the refrain, “Little lamb, God bless thee! Little lamb God bless thee” Blake is asking Christ to save all of us.
We have just the opposite image in Songs of Experience. Blake asks the same question of the tiger.
Would you please read that?
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.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
