William Blake - Songs of Innocence and Experience - The Lamb

"The Lamb" is a poem by

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

, published in ''

Songs of Innocence ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and Illuminated manuscript, illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later, he b ...

'' in 1789. "The Lamb" is the counterpart poem to Blake's poem: "

The Tyger "The Tyger" is a poem by the English poet William Blake, published in 1794 as part of his '' Songs of Experience'' collection and rising to prominence in the romantic period. The poem is one of the most anthologised in the English literary can ...

" in ''

Songs of Experience ''Songs of Innocence and of Experience'' is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later, he bound these poems with a ...

''. Blake wrote ''Songs of Innocence'' as a contrary to the ''Songs of Experience'' – a central tenet in his philosophy and a central theme in his work.Kazin, Alfred. "Introduction". ''The Portable Blake''. The Viking Portable Library. 41–43. Like many of Blake's works, the poem is about Christianity. The lamb is a frequently used name of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, who is also called "The Lamb of God" in the Gospel of

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

1:29 and 36, as well as throughout John's

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...

(or Revelations) at the end of the New Testament.

Poem

Structure

At first glance, this poem appears to consist of rhyming couplets, and the first and last couplet in the first stanza could be said to exhibit

identical rhyme Perfect rhyme—also called full rhyme, exact rhyme, or true rhyme—is a form of rhyme between two words or phrases, satisfying the following conditions: *The stressed vowel sound in both words must be identical, as well as any subsequent ...

; however, the rhyme is an exact repeat of the three last words, or phrase, "who made thee," and the last couplet is a repetition of the first verbatim. The effect is that of a refrain in a song, such as a lullaby in this "Song of Innocence." The speaker is even a child. It is interesting to note that the final word of the third and fourth lines (the first couplet in the body of the text), "feed mead," rhyme identically with the final word of the first two lines, "thee," creating a smooth transition. The body of the first stanza follows the

rhyming scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rh ...

AABBCC: "feed mead delight bright voice rejoice;" the body of the second, follows the rhyming scheme ABCCBA: "name lamb mild child lamb name"—a pattern found in the Bible and a kernel of a larger Hebraic technique or device. An exact repeat of the entire line is employed in the second stanza's first and last couplets: the first two lines, and then the last two different lines, with the ABCCBA scheme in the body. The whole is indeed effective, one might even say "innocent" with perfect truth. In the first stanza, the speaker, a child, asks the lamb who its creator is, and if it knows who; the child knows and tells the lamb the answer in the second stanza.

Musical settings

Like the other ''Songs of Innocence'' and ''Songs of Experience'', ''The Lamb'' may have been intended to be sung, but no records survive of Blake's own musical settings. It was set to music by

Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

in his 1958 song cycle ''

Ten Blake Songs ''Ten Blake Songs'' is a song cycle for tenor or soprano voice and oboe composed over the Christmas period of 1957 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (18721958), for the 1958 film ''The Vision of William Blake'' by Guy Brenton for Morse Films. The firs ...

'', although he described it as "that horrible little lamb – a poem that I hate". It was also given a setting by Sir

John Tavener Sir John Kenneth Tavener (28 January 1944 – 12 November 2013) was an English composer, known for his extensive output of choral religious works. Among his best known works are '' The Lamb'' (1982), '' The Protecting Veil'' (1988), and ''Song ...

, who explained: "''The Lamb'' came to me fully grown and was written in an afternoon and dedicated to my nephew Simon for his 3rd birthday." American poet

Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...

set the poem to music, along with several other of Blake's poems, in 1969 and was included on his album ''Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake''. Ginsberg's songs were re-worked by Steven Taylor for the album ''Songs of Innocence & of Experience: Shewing The Two Contrary States Of The Human Soul'', released in 2019, by Ace Records, to coincide with the Blake exhibition at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

Gallery

Songs of Innocence copy B 1789 Library of Congress object 29 The Lamb.jpg, Songs of Innocence copy B 1789 Library of Congress object 29 "The Lamb" Songs of Innocence copy G object 8 The Lamb.jpg, Songs of Innocence, copy G, 1789 (Yale Center for British Art) object 8 "The Lamb" Songs of Innocence copy U 1789 The Houghton Library object 11 The Lamb.jpg, Songs of Innocence copy U 1789 The Houghton Library object 11 "The Lamb" Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy A, 1795 (British Museum), object 8 The Lamb.jpg, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy A, 1795 (British Museum), object 8 "The Lamb" Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy C, 1789, 1794 (Library of Congress), object 8 The Lamb.jpg, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy C, 1789, 1794 (Library of Congress), object 8 "The Lamb" Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy Y, 1825 (Metropolitan Museum of Art), object 8 (The Lamb).jpg, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy Y, 1825 (Metropolitan Museum of Art), object 8 "The Lamb" The Lamb 1826.jpg, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy Z, 1826 (Library of Congress) object 8 "The Lamb" Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy AA, 1826 (The Fitzwilliam Museum), object 8 The Lamb.jpg, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, copy AA, 1826 (The Fitzwilliam Museum), object 8 "The Lamb"

References

External links

A Bibliography of Important Interpretations of "The Lamb"
from the University of Georgia English Department {{DEFAULTSORT:Lamb, The 1789 poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience