Reading Between the Lines

William Blake’s poem “The Lamb” is a simplistic poem until you read deeper into it and find a powerful and uplifting religious message about creation. Blake is able to draw people into his poem by having a young innocent child as the speaker, asking rhetorical questions to a lamb. Although he also throws irony into the second stanza by having the young child answer his own questions, asked in the first stanza. The poem has a tone so sweet and soft that it is not offensive in any means and is not affected by cynicism of the older generations. Blake’s poem is one of the most famous poems in English literature because of the spiritual message left between the lines. Blake chose to have a child as the speaker in his poem, he made that…show more content…(Gualdoni) The second stanza expresses a tone of joy whenever the child ironically reveals the answers with such a strong faith in his words. With the lines “I’ll tell thee”, and “He calls himself a Lamb”, the child shows excitement and joy for discovering a larger existence; God, has created this lamb that’s in front of him. The same line also consists of a paradox because he calls himself the lamb and a child at the same time, when Jesus is the symbol of the lamb. (Moore) Blake’s poem has a theme of spirituality, peace and creation. These ideas are created by words used such as “God”, “bless thee”, and “give thee life”. (Gualdoni) The description of the stream where the lamb is at expresses the kindness of God’s creation. (Moore)Blake also used allusions in his poem to help represent the themes. Christ is often referred to as a shepherd in the bible which displays spirituality. The lamb by itself is a symbol of peace, meekness, and sacrifice. Together the lamb laying with the lion is also a sign of peace.(Gualdoni) Blake uses a metaphor to compare Jesus to a lamb. Jesus was God’s sacrifice to creation, he was the sacrificial lamb, and Jesus was sacrificed on the cross to create more peace in the world. The poem was written as a religious hymn, with two stanzas. Each stanza has five rhymed couplets, the first two and last two lines of each stanza are viewed as the chorus of a song or a refrain