William Blake
McCarthy 1
Lizzy McCarthy
26 April 2013
1A
Innocence and Experience During the Romantic Age, many poets focused on connecting with their audience on a deeper level by writing about mundane topics. William Blake exemplifies this characteristic of Romantic Age poets with his use of animals, cities, and everyday jobs, such as the chimney sweeps. By using such relatable topics, Blake’s audience is able to better understand the comparisons included in his Songs of Innocence and his Songs of Experience. William Blake’s poems, “The Little Lamb”, from Songs of Innocence, and “The Tyger”, from Songs of Experience, are similar and contrasting through Blake’s incorporation of nature, human emotion, and biblical allusions, which were characteristics of the Romantic Age. William Blake creates a comparison between the innocence of “The Little Lamb”, and the experience of “The Tyger”, by using elements of nature to show similar and different characteristics of the lamb and the tyger. In “The Little Lamb”, Blake refers to parts of nature such as the “stream” and the “wooly, bright” wool of the lamb. The stream relates to water, which translates to purity and the figurative sense of washing away sins and evilness. The bright wool of the lamb creates the image of pure whiteness, lending to the innocence and purity of the lamb. On the contrasting hand, “The Tyger” contains much more vivid and dark incorporations of nature. The poem begins with “Tyger! burning bright in the forests of night…” (Giola
McCarthy 2
& Kennedy, 1149). From the beginning, a feeling of evil and fear comes over the reader, which is quite the opposite of the overall atmosphere of “The Little Lamb”. The main contribution that nature possesses for this comparison is the concept of good versus evil. Blake uses nature in “The Little Lamb” to paint a picture of pureness and innocence. The lamb, which could translate to an innocent child, not yet exposed to the cruel reality, represents the
Lizzy McCarthy
26 April 2013
1A
Innocence and Experience During the Romantic Age, many poets focused on connecting with their audience on a deeper level by writing about mundane topics. William Blake exemplifies this characteristic of Romantic Age poets with his use of animals, cities, and everyday jobs, such as the chimney sweeps. By using such relatable topics, Blake’s audience is able to better understand the comparisons included in his Songs of Innocence and his Songs of Experience. William Blake’s poems, “The Little Lamb”, from Songs of Innocence, and “The Tyger”, from Songs of Experience, are similar and contrasting through Blake’s incorporation of nature, human emotion, and biblical allusions, which were characteristics of the Romantic Age. William Blake creates a comparison between the innocence of “The Little Lamb”, and the experience of “The Tyger”, by using elements of nature to show similar and different characteristics of the lamb and the tyger. In “The Little Lamb”, Blake refers to parts of nature such as the “stream” and the “wooly, bright” wool of the lamb. The stream relates to water, which translates to purity and the figurative sense of washing away sins and evilness. The bright wool of the lamb creates the image of pure whiteness, lending to the innocence and purity of the lamb. On the contrasting hand, “The Tyger” contains much more vivid and dark incorporations of nature. The poem begins with “Tyger! burning bright in the forests of night…” (Giola
McCarthy 2
& Kennedy, 1149). From the beginning, a feeling of evil and fear comes over the reader, which is quite the opposite of the overall atmosphere of “The Little Lamb”. The main contribution that nature possesses for this comparison is the concept of good versus evil. Blake uses nature in “The Little Lamb” to paint a picture of pureness and innocence. The lamb, which could translate to an innocent child, not yet exposed to the cruel reality, represents the
References: Giola, Dana & X.J. Kennedy. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. New York, NY: Pearson Longman, 2005. Print. Miner, Paul. "Blake 's 'Tyger ' as Miltonic beast." Studies in Romanticism 47.4 (2008): 479+ Ruff, John. "William Blake and the Cultures of Radical Christianity." Christianity and Literature 59.2 (2010): 347+. Academic OneFile. Web. 21 Mar. 2013. Stauffer, Andrew M. "The first known publication of Blake 's poetry in America." Notes and Queries 43.1 (1996): 41+ Untermeyer, Louis. Lives of the Poets: The Story of One Thousand Years of English and American Poetry. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1959. Print.