Speaker's Worldview William Blake's Worldview

¶ … Speaker's Worldview William Blake's Worldview in "The Lamb" William Blake's poem, "The Lamb," is one of twenty-three poems he published in his compilation, Songs of Innocence, and it may very well be the most famous of his poems in that work. Songs of Innocence was published to coincide with another compilation he wrote called Songs of Experience, and it was through these two collections of poems Blake would take a look from the outside at extreme examples of his opinion of the society at the time.

In Songs of Experience, Blake criticizes the corruption in many areas of the society, and in Songs of Innocence, he pulls out illustrations of the positive aspects of society. In "The Lamb," Blake uses poetic techniques and imagery to describe what he believes to be the positive aspects of religion. Poets use a variety of techniques to convey many different messages, and in "The Lamb" Blake uses bouncy meter and playful rhyme to paint a picture of religious innocence.

Immediately evident upon reading "The Lamb" is the short length of the individual lines, as in "Little Lamb who made thee/Dost thou know who made thee," (1,2) which, considered by itself, gives the poem a rather simple quality. What is next noticeable about the poem is the repetition of certain phrases such as "who made thee," (1,2 & 9,10) which becomes even stronger in the first and last couplets in the second stanza, with the repetition of "Little Lamb I'll tell thee," (11, 12) and "Little Lamb God bless thee" (19,20).

This repetition is similar to the form of a nursery rhyme, and therefore eliminates the poem from the realm of seriousness and casts it instead into silliness. This overarching theme of silliness and simplicity is strengthened even more by the bouncy quality of the meter. Each line has either six or seven syllables, with the first syllable accented and every other syllable accented after that.

This meter allows the poem to roll off the tongue like a song, and when this kind of meter is used in conjunction with the playful couplet rhyming scheme, the poem flows even more. All mechanical elements combined with the playful rhythm and rhymes give the poem childlike, innocent qualities. "The Lamb" also contains some beautiful imagery and analogies that help paint a picture of the innocence, peace and love experienced by those of the Christian faith.

In the first stanza, the speaker, a child, begins to ask the Lamb naive, but rhetorical questions about who created the Lamb. Further along, the child describes the happy qualities of the Lamb, with its soft wool and "tender voice" (7). The creator also provided the Lamb other positive things, such as its very life and the food that sustains it. In the second stanza the rhetoric of the previous questions is affirmed when the child goes on, without hesitation, to tell the Lamb who made him.

The imagery in the first stanza gives a feeling of peace and ease when it talks about the stream and the mead. The other words in the stanza about the Lamb's "clothing of delight" (5) and "softest clothing wooly bright" (6) are all positive, lighthearted words that connote happiness and peace. The child's presentation of his naive question that is asked without any expectation of an answer conveys an innocence over the entire poem.

In the second stanza, however, the imagery is not quite so clear, and the images become more analogy than picture, but the analogy represents innocence and purity. In the child's answer about who made the Lamb, the child describes the creator as both a child and a Lamb. Commonly, children are thought of as innocent and pure, as are lambs (the children of sheep, if you will) considered harmless and docile.

In Christianity, Jesus often refers to a child-like state or a child-like mind as the most innocent and teachable mindset to have. Also in Christianity, lambs are considered innocent and blameless, at times in need of love and guidance. Indeed, the child in the poem explains it best when he says that the Lamb's creator "became a little child" (16) and "calls himself a Lamb" (14).

In Christianity, the creator God and his son Jesus are considered to be one in the same person, God in divine form and Jesus in human form. When Jesus (also the creator, God), came to Earth as a man, he sacrificed ease and comfort for pain and ridicule. In the end, he paid the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of all mankind.

In the times of Jesus, animals were offered as sacrifices to God, and it is because of Jesus' sacrifice that he is referred to also in the Bible as the Lamb of God. He came to Earth as a child, and departed in the same way that many lambs had. The reason animals were used in sacrifices, and the reason.