"Little Lamb, Who made thee? / Dost thou know who made thee?" (Norton, 45) "Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright/In the forest of the night/What immortal hand or eye/Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" (Norton, 54) These are the first few lines from William Blake's poem The Lamb from Songs of Innocence and The Tyger from Songs of Experience. These poems have been compared and contrasted for years, due to their similar and yet different subjects. In this paper I plan on, not proving how different or alike these two poems are, I plan on proving that both poems are in fact about the same creature. .
In the poem The Lamb, the Lamb is described as having " clothing of delight/Softest clothing of wooly bright." (Norton, 45) The Tyger from the poem of the same name on the other hand is described as not only having "fearful symmetry," but, in Blake's first draft of The Tyger, the Tyger is also described as having " eyes of fury rolled." (Norton, 2860) When one thinks of the Lamb, on would think of a mild, peaceful, and innocent. However, when one pictures the Tyger, one pictures an animal that is a predator, fearless, and strong. So what could make one thing that these two polar opposite creatures are in fact one in the same?.
To begin with let us take a look at the writing style Blake uses in The Lamb. The writing style is quite simple, child-like, and pure if you will. Blake's writing style for The Tyger however is not. The writing style of The Tyger is more dark, questioning, and adult-like. The writing style makes it seem the Lamb grew up and became the Tyger.
Let us take a look at the two books of poems that The Lamb and The Tyger came from. The Lamb comes from Songs of Innocence, which was published by Blake in 1789. The Tyger comes later in Songs of Experience, which was published in 1794, five years later. Both of these Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience show us the world in what Blake refers to as "two contrary states of the human soul.
