The Lamb

     The Lamb

      William Blake, a pre-romantic poet, approaches his subjects sincerely with a mind unclouded by current opinions such as reason, rationalism and suppression of thoughts in his society. On the other hand, he approves the values of freedom, love, equality and brotherhood. Therefore, he is considered one of the romantic poets. Most of his poems have the romantic features such as nature, imagination, simplicity, transcendentalism, freedom and childhood. In his poem "the Lamb", nature, simplicity, and transcendentalism are clear romantic features that we, as readers, can notice them easily.

     First of all, nature is the main focus in his poem. Unlike his age`s opinions about nature as it is a source of corruption, nature for Blake is a source of relaxation, inspiration and peace. At the beginning of his poem, we can hint nature from its title, "the Lamb". This title is part from the pastoral life which is, for Blake, a refuge from all sufferings. It suggests all good characteristics in the world that lead the humanity to relaxation and peace. Such characteristics are the beautiful side of natural world which are mildness, softness, simplicity, fragileness, peace and sacrifice. In addition, he uses natural setting which is considered as a flame for his inspiration. Thus, he starts to think of the process of creation which is beyond anyone’s imagination as he asks in his poem, "little lamb who made thee, dost thou know who made thee?”. Then he asks more questions such as who, "gave thee life and bid thee feed". This suggests that nature gives him a space to think, imagine, and meditate of even the simplest natural creature.

     Secondly, another obvious romantic feature is simplicity. The poem is simple in terms of its form, subject matter and diction. According to the form, the poem has two stanzas with ten lines each. The first two and last two lines of each stanza are repeated like the chorus or refrain of a song.  Furthermore, it has simple AABB rhyme scheme and trochaic rhythm. This simple form makes the poem easier to be read, understood and memorized. Talking about the subject matter, the lamb is totally a simple natural element to contemplate and speak about. The process of creation itself could be simple when it is asked by a little child as one of the children’s major questions. Speaking about diction, the language is very easy to be understood. The word choice, for instance, is very simple such as "lamb, little, child, life, mild, delight, bright, rejoice... etc.

     Finally, transcendental aspect is another core of this poem. From the very beginning, the title symbolizes the Christ which gives us an impression about the spiritual connection with a greater power. This connection, moreover, continues through his poem. For example, he says, "he calls himself a lamb... He became a little child: I a child and thou a lamb, we are called by his name". This demonstrates the unity of the three of them, nature or lamb, God and the child. The three of them are connected to each other and they share the same major characteristics of goodness, love, softness and innocence.

     Indeed, William Blake is famous of writing against the ordered rules of the previous age. He takes poetry as liberating from the conventions which drew rules for everything in the society. Therefore, he writes about love, innocence, creation, emotions and childhood. In his poem “the lamb”, we can hint three romantic features which are nature, simplicity and transcendentalism. These characteristics of his writings make Blake be considered as one of the pioneers of the romantic literature.

Written by:

Sahar Yassin Elshobaki