Blake's Contrasting Animals

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Blake's poems The Lamb from songs of innocence and The Tiger from songs of experience provide an insight to creation and how God relates to mankind. In The Lamb Blake asks "the lamb" if he knows who created him, and reveals that it is Christ who willingly gave himself up as the lamb that formed him. In scripture in places such as Isaiah and Revelation Jesus is described as the lamb who chose to be silent as he was led to the slaughter, as well as the only innocent and spotless blameless sacrifice worthy to reconcile man to God. When God asks who is worthy to open the scroll in the book of Revelation, and the lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is brought forth it draws similarities to Blake's reference to Jesus becoming a lamb, meek and mild, becoming like a little child. Essentially he offers himself as a child, lowering his status as God to become man for us. Contrasting this, when he writes in The Tiger his word choice is more powerful, less “innocent (see what I did there?). I found it interesting when he asked, “Did the one who made the lamb make thee?” When writing of the tiger he uses diction that is fearful, terrifying. I just found it interesting that these poems so beautifully contrasted each other.

 Commented on Ty's and Nate's

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  1. Will BradyOctober 10, 2017 at 7:49 AM

    Part of me wants to question Blake's theology after reading "The Tiger"… After the scriptural truth of "The Lamb," would he backpedal on his faith for the sake of his writing? Or did he forget that the tiger wasn't created by Satan to be a monster and is another fallen creation?

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