The Lamb By William Blake

Little Lamb, who made thee? 

Does thou know who made thee,

Gave thee life, and bid thee feed

By the stream and o’er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing, woolly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice?

Little lamb, who made thee?

Does thou know who made thee?

Little lamb, I’ll tell thee;

Little lamb, I’ll tell thee:

He is callèd by thy name,

For He calls Himself a Lamb.

He is meek, and He is mild,

He became a little child.

I a child, and thou a lamb,

We are callèd by His name.

Little lamb, God bless thee!

Little lamb, God bless thee!

Paraphrasing:

Who created you, Little Lamb? Do you know who made you, gave you life and fed you, by the water, gave you beautiful clothing, soft clothing; gave you voice, made everyone rejoice? Who created you, Little Lamb? Do you know who made you? Little Lamb, I'll tell you, Little Lamb, I'll tell you: he has the same name as you, he also calls himself the Lamb. He is humble, and he is kind, he is a little child. I am a child, and you are a lamb, we also have his name. Little Lamb, God loves you! Little Lamb, God loves you!

Initial Reaction:

This poem is an interesting one. On it surface, it oddly seems to be questioning and describing a lamb created by God. I feel that the mention of the lamb and God is some kind of homage to God and his Christian followers. It seems as though Blake is comparing God's followers to lambs, to mindless followers. The poem is clearly highly religious and seems to even allude to the birth of baby Jesus. 

SWIFTT:

Blake separates his questions to the lamb from other parts of the poem. When he is directly speaking to the lamb he doesn't indent, to show contrast between the questions and the description. When Blake refers to God in the poem he capitalizes the first letter of the name God is called by to make it distinguishable. This is also intentionally done to allude back to the Bible where God is referred to as He. Blake uses a variety of complex and simple sentence structures in order to both pose the questions asked and to answer them. The first stanza is primarily comprised of the questions (often rhetorical) to the lamb. The second stanza is the reply filled with statements and exclamations. This poem uses the image of a lamb all throughout the poem. Blake is very descriptive when he describes the coat of the lamb by saying, “Softest clothing, woolly, bright”. Blake also invokes the senses when he says the lamb has such a “tender voice”. There are no similes in this poem, and there are very few actual uses of figurative language, but the entire poem is about comparing the lamb to Christ.The tone of the poem is happy, inquisitive, and religious. Blake is constantly asks questions throughout the first stanza, such as “Little lamb, who made thee?” The lamb itself in the poem is a symbol of Christ and throughout the second stanza Blake does a fantastic job of showing this. The major theme of this poem is the comparison of the little lamb to Christ and Christians. The Christ aspect is found in the comparison to baby Jesus, however, Blake then says that he and the lamb have the same name.

Conclusion:

My initial thoughts about the poem were correct. It's highly religious and is clearly talking about God and Jesus. To deepen the level of the poem, Blake brings himself into it, saying that he and the lab have the same name. That he is a lamb. yet also Christ is the lamb. That Blake and the other Christian "lambs" are the same. They are related because they are in-fact brothers and sisters in their "sharing of the same name".