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Blake instead chooses to call Him by the title which John the Baptist gave to him when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29), setting off a long tradition of Jesus being identified as the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei). The title has reverberated throughout the centuries, appearing in the Mass: "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis," as well as in song.
Blake, here, uses the title to gain traction with the child. The child's Maker, he says, is like him: He, too, was once a child, and even goes by the same name as that which the speaker has given the child: "He is called by thy name, / For he calls himself a Lamb. / He is meek, and he is mild; / He became a little child." Blake's poem is a poem of the Incarnation: it relates to the child the fact that his Maker became human. Of course, the poem does not go into very many of the details surrounding the Incarnation...
In fact, it is just the right amount. The speaker ends the poem with a prayer, "Little Lamb, God bless thee!" So not only has the speaker communicated a lesson, he has also prayed for the child.
In conclusion, Blake's "The Lamb" may be viewed as an exercise in the fulfillment of the Great Commission of Christ to go forth and teach all nations. While, of course, "The Lamb" is addressed only to a child, it can still be thought of as a catechetical aid -- for it alludes to the great mystery of the Incarnation and the fact of God's creation and personal interest in the lives of everyone of us -- and it does so in a way that is both compelling and easy to understand.
Works Cited
Blake, William. "The Lamb." Poetry Foundation. Web. 11 Oct 2011.
New Testament. NY: Confraternity of the Precious Blood, 1948. Print.
Works Cited
Blake, William. "The Lamb." Poetry Foundation. Web. 11 Oct 2011.
New Testament. NY: Confraternity of the Precious Blood, 1948. Print.
William Blake's "The Lamb" is part of his manuscript for Songs of Innocence (Erdman, 1988, p. 72). As such, there is a light, jubilant tone rendered throughout, which pervades the poem's theme, subject, narrator, and setting. Within this poem, an unidentified narrator directly addresses a lamb. The principle motif that this work revolves about is the time honored conceit of a lamb representing Jesus Christ and the mercy and kindness
William Blake's "The Lamb" In the poem "The Lamb," William Blake distinguishes his unique style through the incorporation of religious symbolism, creative lines, and simplistic patterns. "The Lamb" was published as part of a series of poems in 1789 titled the Songs of Innocence; actually, he wrote "The Lamb" and the other works as part of a series of lyrics. The entire work represents an enlightened state in Blake's life, and
The poet does not use slang as a means to alter the general messages of the poem, as the grammatical style is formal for the period during which the poem was written. The vocabulary he uses is standard and although contemporary readers might consider the vernacular to be outdated, it is actually in accordance with the period when "The Lamb" was written. Blake wrote the poem in closed verse and
He saw that there could be no innocence if one could not acquire experience and knowledge later. This is also true of the kind of art Blake executed. Engravings are drawings made up of lines. It is not possible to remove the lines and have any art left, because that is what his style art does: it divides blank space. Without the blank space, there can be no lines.
1) Technically, the work consists of several poetic devices: Alliteration: Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright -- Frame Thy Fearful Symmetry. Apostrophe: Use of apostrophe directing speaker's prose to the tiger. Metaphor: The tiger has "eyes of fire" Anaphora: Repetition of "What" at the beginning of sentences or clauses (What dread hand, what the chain, etc.) Allusion: The immortal hand or eye (God or Satan, Creation or Destruction; Distant deeps or skies; the underworld, heaven. The overall theme of
" Because he believed that that creation followed a cosmic catastrophe and a fall of spiritual beings into matter, Blake discusses Gnosticism, a multi-faceted religious movement that has run parallel to mainstream Christianity (Friedlander, 1999). Unlike most other Gnosticizers, Blake sees the world as a wonderful place, but one that would ultimately give way to a restored universe. For Blake, the purpose of creation is as a place for personal growth,