William Blake's "The Lamb": Innocence, Divinity, and the Lamb Conceit

Introduction

William Blake's "The Lamb" is part of his manuscript for Songs of Innocence (Erdman, 1988, p. 72). As such, a light, jubilant tone pervades the poem's theme, subject, narrator, and setting. Within the poem, an unidentified narrator directly addresses a lamb. The principal motif around which the work revolves is the time-honored conceit of a lamb representing Jesus Christ and the mercy and kindness of God. This poem is therefore principally about the goodness and divinity of all creatures, as evinced by their innate connection to God, and Blake utilizes the poem's setting, mood, title, narrator, and literary devices to reinforce this central theme.

Structure and Anaphora

Structurally, Blake divides the poem into two stanzas, both of which employ a generous amount of anaphora. The first stanza concerns the literal lamb whom the narrator addresses; the second stanza concerns the figurative lamb that the literal one represents — Jesus Christ. The repetition of the word "thee" recurs throughout the first stanza, appearing in all but two of its ten lines, and underscores the author's emphasis on the titular lamb as the principal point of comparison in this commonly found conceit. The following quotation readily demonstrates this: "Dost thou know who made thee / Gave thee life & bid thee feed" (Blake, 1789). In this passage, the author uses the word thee three times in a span of seven words, reinforcing the poem's focus on the lamb. The frequent references to the lamb's creator and the bestower of its "feed" and "life" point to a divinity that is both responsible for this largess and represented by the lamb itself.

This latter point is well demonstrated in the second stanza, where the author repeats the word "he" as frequently as he repeats "thee" in the first stanza. "He," of course, refers to Jesus, the metaphorical Lamb of God. The lamb is therefore both literally and figuratively divine in this poem.

Diction, Narrator, and Mood

A close examination of the diction of "The Lamb" reveals crucial aspects of Blake's use of the narrator and the poem's overall mood. There is a jubilant tone to the language throughout, which establishes a positive mood of wonder and redemption. The narrator describes the wool of the lamb, for instance, as "clothing of delight" and "bright"; indeed, all aspects of the poem's portrayal of the lamb — including the description of its voice as "tender" — reinforce this joyous mood (Blake, 1789).

Although Blake provides little explicit information about the narrator's identity, one can infer from the child-like fascination with the lamb's features — its voice, its wool — that the narrator is a child. This is confirmed by the only direct self-description the narrator offers: "I a child & thou a lamb" (Blake, 1789). This line is critical to the poem's interpretation, because in it the narrator identifies himself as a child in much the same way that the lamb is simultaneously a literal and a figurative lamb. The comparison is then made explicit in the following line, where the narrator asserts, "We are called by his name" (Blake, 1789). The fact that both the narrator and the lamb share a calling from God — denoted by the word "his" — symbolizes their common origin in divine creation and the goodness that is representative of their maker. Readers interested in Blake's broader symbolic system may consult the Poetry Foundation's edition of "The Lamb" for the full text alongside contextual notes.

Conclusion

Blake uses the time-honored motif of nature reflecting the will and power of God to convey the central theme that all things made by God are part of his will, divinity, and benign presence. The lamb illustrates this on the literal level as a simple part of nature, and on the figurative level as a reflection of Jesus Christ. The child-like narrator is likewise identified in the poem as one of God's creations, sharing in this divinity, as does the natural setting of valleys, streams, and meadows in which the lamb dwells. Blake employs an abundance of anaphora to emphasize this point, distinguishing the poem's two stanzas as describing the lamb (in the first) and Jesus (in the second). The overall tone of joy characterizes the narrator's rejoicing — along with the elements of the natural setting — in the divinity and connection with God that all created things share. For broader context on Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, the companion volume to this collection illuminates how "The Lamb" contrasts with its darker counterpart, "The Tyger."