Literature as a Christian witness and salvific tool for the Great Commission

William Blake's "The Lamb" and the Great Commission

William Blake was every bit a poet of the Romantic Age -- and yet unlike the other Romantics (Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth), his approach to transcendent truth had more in common with the old world than with the new. William Blake's "The Lamb" is a poem that conveys a distinctly Christian message. Not unlike many of his other poems and engravings, "The Lamb" is an expression of what Blake saw as his own Great Commission. By no means an admirer of the Old World Church, he nonetheless accepted the faith that he had received from his Protestant forbearers and through this faith pointed the way to Heaven. Thus, he fulfilled like the Apostles the dictate of the Resurrected Jesus to "go forth and teach all nations." This paper will analyze Blake's "The Lamb" and show how it may be considered as a catechetical aid.

Blake's "The Lamb" brilliantly brings together the balladic repetitions of song with childlike precision and simplicity to effect a touching and theologically sound piece of literature. What makes "The Lamb" so effective (and all literature, for that matter) is that it conveys deep spiritual truths in a manner that the mind and heart can easily grasp. His poem is addressed to a child (a point which makes its simplicity all the more endearing) and begins with the basic question of identity: Blake calls the child a lamb (a clear reference to Christ's admonition to Peter to "Feed my lambs") (John 21:15) and asks, "Little Lamb, who made thee?"

It is not a just a question of parentage. It is a question of supernatural origin. The speaker expands upon it, enlarging its scope, essentially telling the child that all of the good gifts that he has been given have come from the One Who has made him. His voice, his garments, his health, his daily bread, his life, his joy -- it has all come from somewhere -- and again the speaker asks, closing out the stanza, "Dost thou know who made thee?"

In the second stanza, Blake answers the question. The whole poem is a lesson in Christianity -- even though Jesus is never named directly. 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 -- but for a child, it is enough information to dwell upon for a while. 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.