The Lamb

“The Tyger” by William Blake (1794)

Several of Blake’s poems in Songs of Innocence have counterpoint poems in his follow-up collection, Songs of Experience. “The Tyger” is Blake’s dark counterpart to “The Lamb,” focusing on a similar theme of the mystery of creation. However, the divine love of the Creator is absent from “The Tyger,” wherein the Creator wields his “dread” power to craft a creature of “fearful symmetry.” Likewise, the speaker of “The Tyger” views this God not with childlike wonder but with awe and terror. The poems reveal contrasting views of creation, allowing Blake to explore the multiplicity of the natural world through two visionary lenses: utopian and apocalyptic.

“Spring” by William Blake (1789)

“Spring” appears in Blake’s collection Songs of Innocence alongside “The Lamb.” The poem is notable because it is another one of Blake’s pastoral poems, featuring a bucolic setting with images of animals and children celebrating nature’s beauty. Like “The Lamb,” the poem’s speaker is a child, and in the final stanza, this speaker kisses a “Little Lamb,” signaling a romantic, albeit innocent union between the human and animal worlds. The poem thus explores a similar theme to “The Lamb” but through a romantic, as opposed to didactic, lens.