William Blake the Lamb vs. The Tyger Compare and Contrast

Blake Poems William Blake, who lived from 1757 to1827, was a deeply religious man who originally trained as an artist, studying first painting and then engraving. He believed that he had received visions of angels in which he held conversations with the angels. He had other visions as well, both of monks and of other historical figures (The Literature Network). His sense of mystery about religion is evident in his poems, which reflect religious beliefs of the day that both good and bad were present in the world.

His poem "The Lamb" represents the spiritual good in the world, while his poem "The Tyger" (or "The Tiger") reflects his belief that dark and dangerous entities also walk the Earth. In these two poems, Blake shows that he sees a clear distinction between good and evil. This is interesting given that he took up engraving as a trade, because engraving involves positive and negative space: the metal is either there, or not there.

There are no real shades of gray in engraving, and any impression of a shade of gray is an illusion created by black and white from negative and positive space on a piece of metal. His poems "The Lamb" and "The tyger," placed side by side, show just such extremes.

He describes the lamb in the sweetest of terms: "Does 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?" When he talks of the tiger, however, his tone changes completely.

Just as he has wondered how the wonderfully sweet lamb was created, he now wonders how something as fearful as the tiger has been created: "In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?" We can guess the answer from his deep religious conviction: the same God that made the meek lamb has created the tiger that can strike terror into any man's heart.

He rhetorically asks, "Little lamb, who made thee? Does thou know who made thee?" And then states that the lamb was made by "He calls [who] Himself a Lamb. He is meek, and He is mild, He became a little child." In Blake's view, God has made the lamb in his likeness as the child Jesus. But where, then, does the tiger come from? Blake doesn't leave us wondering.

Again he asks a rhetorical question: "When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" While the poems were not written together, Blake has invited us to consider them together by referring to the lamb in the tyger poem. He puts the two together to demonstrate the complexity of God.

Deeply religious, he wants us to think about the nature of a God who could -- and would feel a need to -- create both the lamb and the tiger. This brings us back to art. Engravings are a kind of drawing, lines that divide space. There is the line, and there is that which is not the line, which is the empty space. Just as the paper would be a blank sheet without the line, the line cannot exist without the blank sheet.

Perhaps Blake is trying to show us that both good and evil must exist in the world, or we will not be able to see the good. We certainly wouldn't be able to see it as clearly. The lamb is the epitome of the kindest and most gentle aspect of God, but the tiger shows God's ferocity and strength. After al, good cannot triumph over evil unless evil exists.

We could look at these two poems and interpret the lamb as being weak, but Blake tells us that the lamb was made in Christ's image. Christ's goodness was his greatest strength, and in Blake's belief, the kind of goodness that could triumph over any evil. It is the lamb's "softest clothing, woolly, bright" and "tender voice" that communicates its innocence and gentleness to us, but it is those traits that give the lamb, and Jesus, and those people who emulate the lamb/Jesus, tremendous strength.

It gives them the strength to overcome any evil. Blake works to make.