The Lion And The Tyger Essay, Research Paper
Of the many poetic works by William Blake, “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”
show a large amount of similarity, as well as differences, both in the way he
describes the creatures and in the style he chose to write them.
The reader will find many similarities in these two poems. Both of them
discuss the creation of the creatures by God. The lines, “Little Lamb,
who made thee?” and “What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful
symmetry” clearly show that the poet is referring to a being who is capable
of creating life (538). These two poems are also alike in the aspect that
they both talk about the object viewed in the eyes of the common man. “The
Lamb” is described in a biblical sense to give the reader a feeling of a
soft, gentle, heavenly creature. In “The Tyger”, Blake uses the same
technique to describe the tiger as a fearful, devil-like monster.
The structure of the two poems also reveals a large amount of
similarity. In “The Tyger” and “The Lamb”, each consecutive sentence rhymes.
It demonstrates how rhythm captures and keeps the reader’s attention as opposed to
a poem lacking rhythm. The use of questions is also highly utilized in the
two written works. This makes the reader ponder the subject discussed in the
poem. The words “thy”, “thou”, “thine”, and “thee” present in the poems show
that both of them were written in the deferential language of the Bible.
Although “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” share many similarities, they also
have some differences. The poems suggest that the lamb and the tiger were
both created by the same creator. The poems read together also raise some
interesting questions. How could a creator create a soft, gentle, loving
creature, and with the same hand construct a dangerous creature? How could
the creator’s hand make a c
grab the fire that is in the tiger’s eye? Blake suggests God seemed pleased
with his creation of the lamb and felt a feeling of fear and regretfullness
after creating the tiger. In “The Lamb”, William Blake compares the lamb to
the Baby Jesus. In contrast, he uses earthly features such as night, fire,
skies, and forests to describe the mighty tiger.
The two poems also show differences in the way they were written.
Instead of using alternating two and six lined stanzas like he used in “The
Lamb”, Blake uses constant four-lined stanzas to provide his image of his
tiger. The titles also reveal different spellings. The lamb is spelled as it
was intended, simple, short, and sweet. In Blake’s “The Tyger”, he replaces
the letter “I” with the letter “Y” to give the name a deceptive and creepy
appearance like the creature he is describing in his poem. The stanzas
present in “The Tyger” end in question marks more often than they do in the
lines of “The Lamb”. By reading both of the poems, the reader will discover
that the word “God” is replaced with the word “He,” leaving the reader to
assume that the poet is referring to God when he talks about He. Another
noticeable difference between the two literary works is that the first and
last two lines of each stanza are repeated in “The Lamb” as opposed to the
whole first and last stanzas that are repeated in “The Tyger”.
“The Lamb” and “The Tyger” by William Blake are both remarkable works of
poetry. They both reflect the personal style of the poet, but they also
show the difference in the poet’s attitude in describing his subjects. He
gives the reader the impression of an innocent lamb in which God took great
pride. He then gives the reader the thought of God’s disapproval after his
creation of the tiger.