William Blake: Life

William Blake
Life:
William Blake was the most remarkable poet among the precursors of the
Romantic Revival in English. The son of a hosier, Blake was born in London in
November 1757. His father James Blake and his mother Catherine were both
Dissenters. There were five children in the family, Blake was the second one. It
appears that the denial and deprivation of love from the family might have
generated in Blake’s mind, an exotic imaginary world of his own. At the age of
seven, he was sent to a good drawing school in the strand, and four years later,
in 1772, he began a seven years apprenticeship in engraving under James
Besire. He was an engraver to the London Society of Antiquaries, where he
learned his craft as well as acquiring some of his poetical and political opinions.
In 1779 he began studying at the Royal Academy and within a year began
exhibiting pictures there, often with historical themes. At twenty-four he
married Catherine Boucher, who was illiterate. So, he taught her to read, write,
and make colours and prints. He never had children, but he was devoted to his
younger brother Robert and taught him drawing and nursed him.
Songs of Innocence and Experience :

Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794) juxtapose the innocent,
pastoral world of childhood against an adult world of corruption and repression;
while such poems as “The Lamb” represent a meek virtue, poems like “The
Tyger” exhibit opposing, darker forces. Thus the collection as a whole explores
the value and limitations of two different perspectives on the world. Many of
the poems fall into pairs, so that the same situation or problem is seen through
the lens of innocence first and then experience. Blake does not identify himself
wholly with either view; most of the poems are dramatic—that is, in the voice
of a speaker other than the poet himself. Blake stands outside innocence and
experience, in a distanced position from which he hopes to be able to recognize
and correct the fallacies of both. In particular, he pits himself against despotic
authority, restrictive morality, sexual repression, and institutionalized religion.
The Songs of Experience work via parallels and contrasts to lament the ways in

which the harsh experiences of adult life destroy what is good in innocence,
while also articulating the weaknesses of the innocent perspective (“The
Tyger,” for example, attempts to account for real, negative forces in the
universe, which innocence fails to confront). These latter poems treat sexual
morality in terms of the repressive effects of jealousy, shame, and secrecy, all of
which corrupt the ingenuousness of innocent love. With regard to religion, they
are less concerned with the character of individual faith than with the institution
of the Church, its role in politics, and its effects on society and the individual
mind. Experience thus adds a layer to innocence that darkens its hopeful vision
while compensating for some of its blindness.
The Lamb
BY W ILL IA M B LA KE
Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Little Lamb I'll tell thee,

Little Lamb I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
About the Poem: ‘The Lamb’ by William Blake was included in The Songs of
Innocence published in 1789. It is regarded “as one of the great lyrics of English
Literature.” In the form of a dialogue between the child and the lamb, the poem
is an amalgam of the Christian script and pastoral tradition.
Central Idea: The main theme of the poem "The Lamb" by William Blake is
praise for specific qualities of Jesus Christ and His gifts to humanity. In the first
stanza, Blake asks the lamb if it knows who gave it life, soft wool, and a tender
voice. In the second stanza, Blake reveals that Jesus Christ created the lamb
with all of its positive qualities. Christ also referred to Himself as a lamb
throughout the scriptures and became a "little child" when He came to earth to
minister. William Blake then proceeds to praise Jesus's qualities by commenting
on His meek and mild personality. Jesus is portrayed as a giving, loving,
peaceful deity throughout the poem and Blake focuses on Christ's innocent
attributes. Overall, Blake's poem praises the gifts from God and reveals his
benevolence and tender qualities.
Themes:
The nature of innocence

The poem introduces the theme of the vulnerability of innocence and of the
incomplete vision of the innocent speaker. The child's view is limited on
account of an absence of awareness of the total reality of human experience.
How the human mind sees the nature of the world and its creator
According to Blake, ‘contraries' are facts about the world and about the nature
of the creative force behind it. For example, ferocious power and energy exist
alongside what is fragile and tender. Humans falsify their understanding of the
Creator and of the human beings made ‘in his image' when one of these
dimensions is excluded from the picture.
The child sees the Creator only as a lamb and a child. The reader knows there
are other forces at play in creation that the child cannot see. And if they are in
Creation are they not also in the Creator?
God in man's image
Blake felt that merely human understanding created a limiting vision of the
Creator, simply as a projection of its own human qualities:
 Those, like the innocent child here, who see only gentleness and
tenderness in nature and in themselves, produce an image of a Creator
who is mild and gentle but lacks energy and power
 Those who have fallen into divided selfhood see the Creator only in terms
of their own capacity for jealousy, cruelty and possessiveness. They
create an image of God as a tyrant who is a tyrannical ruler and must be
appeased
 Here, the innocent child can imagine only a tender, gentle Creator
because this is all he himself knows.

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William Blake

Songs of Innocence and Experience :

The Songs of Experience work via parallels and contrasts to lament the ways in

Little Lamb who made thee

Little Lamb I'll tell thee,

The nature of innocence

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