The Lamb by William Blake : Summary

 

THE LAMB

The Lamb is one of the simplest poems of Blake. It came out in his ‘Songs of Innocence’. The symbolic meaning is almost obvious. The companion piece for this poem is thought to be ‘‘The Tyger’’ in his Songs of Experience where he asks the rhetorical question, “Did he who made the lamb make thee?”. In this poem, the speaker seems to be a child who compares the lamb with Jesus Christ and himself, a child. Addressing the lamb, the first of the two stanzas are full of questions:

 

Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life and bade thee feed.

By the stream and o’er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing wooly bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice!

Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee?

 

On the other hand, the second stanza gives answers to the ones posed in the first part:

 

Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,

Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb:

He is meek and he is mild,

He became a little child:

I a child and thou a lamb,

We are called by his name.

Little Lamb God bless thee.

Little Lamb God bless thee.

 

Symbolism is embedded in the poem. The theme of innocence captured through the symbol of lamb. The speaker juxtaposes lamb and Christ. All these physical description of lamb spiritually or symbolically stands for Jesus Christ. His birth and innocent life is the running theme in the poem as the expression ‘wooly bright’ clearly indicates his birth, he was being born with a soft wooly hair. Indeed, Christ himself is known as The Lamb of God.

 

The Lamb’s innocence and gentleness is associated with that of Christ, the archetypal shepherd: the shepherd who was in charge of his herd. This of course, is only symbolical of Christ as a guide of mankind. Just as a lamb leads a completely natural existence feeding on grass and drinking from streams and clothed in soft wool, as similar to a child.