"The Tyger" and "The Lamb"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the different images of God that are presented in the poems, "The Tyger" and "The Lamb" by William Blake. It analyzes the tone and the language in the two poems and compares and contrasts them to each other. The paper discusses the reasons for the differences in the choices of tone, imagery and language that Blake uses and how this presents different pictures of God to the readers.

From the Paper:

"In The Tyger, there is no overall feeling of innocence and purity one can take from The Lamb. There is 'fear' and 'tears', 'fire' and 'spears'. There are many images of violence, 'the stars [throwing] down their spears', and no presence of a peace-loving divinity. Within the poem itself, there is 'fearful symmetry', as the first and last stanzas are nearly duplicates. The only difference is that in the first stanza, the narrator wonders which God 'could' create a tiger; whereas the last stanza asks which God would 'dare' do it. The choice of a more forceful word makes the narrator seem to demand an answer. In The Lamb, the only questions are asked of the lamb, and then answered. None are asked of the tiger. God is questioned for his work, rather than praised, and the answers are never presented."

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