"The Lamb" and "The Tiger" Outline

“The Lamb” and  “The Tiger” William Blake

Thesis: In William Blake’s poems “The Lamb” and “The Tiger” he contrasts the different creations on this earth and explores the possibility of there being more than one creator.

A.      Blake utilizes questions for two very different purposes in the poems, highlighting the difference in the creation of the lamb and the tiger.

a.       “Dost thou know who made thee?” (2)

b.      “Dost thou know who….gave thee clothing of delight[?]” (2-5).

                                                               i.      In “The Lamb” Blake is using rhetorical questions, implying that the answer is evident.  There is no question that the beautiful, sweet lamb is a gift from God as Blake makes clear throughout the poem.

c.       “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” (3-4)

d.      “What dread hand forged thy dread feet?” (12)

                                                               i.      These questions from “The Tiger” are not rhetorical, for the answer is not clear. Blake leaves the answer open as to whether God could create the lamb and the tiger, animals so different, or there could be another creator.

B.      Blake’s altered forms of repetition also illustrate the disconnect he feels between the creation of the lamb and the tiger.

a.       “Little Lamb, who made thee?/ Dost thou know who made thee?” (1-2). These two lines are repeated at the beginning of the poem and then again at the end of the first stanza as opposed to repeated at the end of the poem like in “The Tiger.” This shows that there is an answer to come in the rest of the poem; God made the lamb, which Blake is going to clarify after the second repetition.

b.      “Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright/ In the forests of the night,/ What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” (1-4). These lines are written at the beginning of the poem and repeated at the very end, showing that Blake has not decided on a final answer to these questions.  He believes that God is the creator, yet he is still bringing Satan into the discussion as an alternate. By ending how he begins, Blake highlights his wavering.

C.      Blake’s biblical allusions illuminate the differences between the creation of the lamb and the tiger.

a.       “For he calls himself a Lamb;/ He is meek and he is mild” (14-15). Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God in the bible, so by using this reference, Blake leaves no question as to who is the creator.

b.      “In what distant deeps or skies/ Burnt the fire of thine eyes?”  (5-6). The “distant deeps” refer to hell while the “skies” refer to heaven, leading to the feeling of uncertainty as to whether the same creator that made the lamb could actually also make the tiger; Blake wonders if it could actually be the Devil responsible for the tiger.