The Lamb by William Blake - Essay Example

From this research it is clear that William Blake’s interpretation of the relationship of man and nature asserts that man is in sync with nature as his poem does not portray the turbulence or the disillusionment of human beings instead he incorporates strains of pastoral poetry in the poem. Gardner also states, “In the rising trepidation of 1978, Blake…exemplified ‘organized innocence’ as the recollected reality he was determined to record and eventually immortalized”. Hence, “The Lamb” is a delightful experience of enjoying William Blake’s mastery of the art of amalgamating innocence and Christian theology by utilizing various stylistic and linguistic techniques such as themes, symbolism and setting.

Hence, he bestows human imagination with a chance to explore his perception of the relationship between man and nature. The major thematic concerns include theme of innocence and theme of religion. Blake’s interpretation of innocence does not adheres to the conventional definition of innocence that confines it’s meaning to “unacquaintance with evil” in fact he believes that innocence is a “freedom from guilt, sin or moral wrong more closely identifies the substance of Innocence: especially adult freedom from moral wrong”.

The theme of innocence in the poem in the form of naive questioning of the young child echoes the dilemma of man who is unsure of his existence and his relation with his creator as he questions, “Little Lamb who made thee,”. Hager believes that, “…Blake has no answer to the questions, hence he leaves the reader to deal with the ambiguity of existence in the lamb”.. from guilt, sin or moral wrong more closely identifies the substance of Innocence: especially adult freedom from moral wrong” (Gardner, 19989, p.217). The theme of innocence in the poem in the form of naive questioning of the young child echoes the dilemma of man who is unsure of his existence and his relation with his creator as he questions, “Little Lamb who made thee,”.

Hager believes that, “…Blake has no answer to the questions, hence he leaves the reader to deal with the ambiguity of existence in the lamb” (2005, p. 26). According to Hager, “S. Foster Damon was amongst the first to interpret the poem (“The Lamb’) as a problem of religious doctrine, that is, ‘how to reconcile the Forgiveness of Sin’” (2005, p. 26). Hence, the theme of religion in the poem highlights another dilemma of the modern man regarding redemption and his inability to stop himself from first committing sin and later regretting his actions.

Hager also states, “In 1974, the novelist and critic Wolf Mankowitz interpreted the poem as ‘a comment on the limited capacity of man to conceive of God at all” (2005, p.26). This shows that fundamentally the poet tries to project the benevolence of God so that human beings will be able to understand that redemption is possible by showing that since Jesus is the man of God and he is kind so is the creator himself. As it is also stated in the poem, “He is meek and He is mild” and later the poem also ends with the line, “Little Lamb, God may bless thee!

” Symbolism As the title of the poem also suggests Lamb is the most prominent symbol used in the poem. In the Christian Gospels Christ is often compared to a Lamb the reason for such a comparison is because a lamb is an innocent and meek animal which signifies purity as