👉🏻 William Blake’s “The Lamb”/Exploration of Childhood Innocence/ Religious Hymn
William Blake’s “The Lamb” can well be considered as a religious hymn to the creation of God. Found in the Song of Innocence, “The lamb” turns out to be a poetic exploration of different avenues of innocence. One interesting aspect of the writings of Blake is that he weaves together poetry and prophesy so seamlessly that the readers get a religious messages while experiencing his poems. C.M. Bowra is one eminent thinker who has harped on this point in The Romantic
Imagination: “He[Blake] has distilled his thoughts into the shape of song, and his appeal is more direct and more immediate than it can be the more complicated technique of prophecy” (28-29). Taking recourse to Bowra’s intervention into Blake’s imagination, it can be argued that a detailed analysis of “The Lamb” can help one understand how Blake resorts to the framework of
a song to exalt the creative potentials of the God.
The opening of “The Lamb” is connotative of how wonderful creative faculties of the God have resulted in the production of the lamb on the earth. The rhetorical question at the inception of the poem suggests that the little lamb is the outcome of the God’s creation. Uses of alliteration and apostrophe, in particular, are very important in that it enhances significance of
the question. The animal ‘Lamb’ stands for innocence and thus is unaware of who, how and why it has been created. Then, the poet proceeds to depict the lamb in mundane terms and with wonder. In a way, he tries to establish a connection between the lamb and the God on the ground that it is the God who has created the lamb; has given life to it; and has allowed it to eat. The
physical structure of the lamb seems to be delightful to the poet because of its ‘tender voice’ and ‘soft white wool’. This innocent creature spreads joy and pleasure on the earth. Reiteration of the same rhetorical question lays emphasis on the immanent link between the Maker and the lamb. In a way, it celebrates the embodiment of innocence through the lamb who presumably does not his Maker.
The second stanza is even more engaging, for readers are given obvious connections between the lamb and the God. The poet explains that the God is often called as the ‘lamb’. So, the ‘lamb’ on the earth has celestial connection with the God. It is by equating the lamb with the God, the poet has attempted to bring out the generosity and innocence of the God. In other words, meek and mild attitude of the God get reflected in the lamb. Then, the poet ingeniously clubs together the lamb, the God and himself on the ground that both the lamb and the poet himself share the ‘name’ of the God. It also accounts for the universal presence of the God through allhis creations. The poet also seeks blessings from the God for the lamb twice thereby suggesting that all the creatures on the earth—be it the lamb or the poet himself—are well connected to the God.
Critical analysis of the poem hints at that the poet has not only examined different dimensions of childhood innocence by means of considering the lamb but also exposes how the God governs the movements of all earthly creatures. Sometimes, “The Lamb” is posited against “The Tyger” to address the contrary states of mind—innocence and experience. Blake’s projection of innocence through the image of the lamb is laudable, for it strings together the lamb, the God and the poet himself. It is the thread of innocence that keeps all the three entities together. Blake’s “The Lamb” is steeped in romantic imagination and artistic creativity. Lucidity
in expression and treatment of religious issues make it stand out among others.
On the whole, Blake’s “The Lamb” his philosophical insights and artistic skills. It also underlines Blake’s dissents on reason, rationality and ratiocination. He celebrates romantic individualism and imagination to work out the relationship between earthly beings and the God. Dualistic and dialectical structure of the poem is interesting in that whereas in the opening stanza, the poet states the ‘problem’, in the next stanza, he sorts it out by providing a solution to it.
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Literature