Country life r. “by the stream and o’er the mead” s. Literary setting for us as readers v. Conclusion “The Lamb” is a Christian poem written by William Blake that utilizes a lamb to symbolize and explain how God created everything in the universe. A child, who is asking a lamb where he came from, speaks this poem. However, the child already knows the answer. The purpose of “The Lamb” is to show God’s love for mankind. William Blake, an English poet, wrote “The Lamb” in 1789.
in many ways these poems are similar, and very beautiful. In "A Barred Owl" and "The History Teacher", the two poets have similar meanings behind what their poems are saying, in that they both capture how a child's innocence is made by lies from adults. In "A Barred Owl", Richard Wilbur discusses how someone keeps the fears of life away from a child, for, "Words, which can make our terrors bravely clear, Can also thus domesticate a fear" (7-8). This is like "The History Teacher", by Billy Collins, because in the his poem, Collins introduces his interactions with the children with, "Trying to protect his students' innocence." (1).
Elizabeth Browning presents an idealistic and an optimistic view towards love and hope through sonnets I, XIV and XLIII. Although composed in two different time frames, both texts have been influenced by personal contexts in their representation of love and hope. Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Fitzgerald’s texts both explore the necessity of love in order to accomplish in life, but are hopeful in achieving their respective love but are contrastingly represented. The sole foundations for Elizabeth’s sonnets arise from her ambivalent and evolving attitude towards the patriarchal values of her society and her father’s repressive restraint on love through his extreme conservatism. She however challenges and subverts the dominant patriarchal paradigms and tropes of her society as she searches for the solution to her descent into morbid conviction.
Gustavo LaRotta ENLT Essay 1 2/16/14 Virtues in Dubliners: A Critical Review In Dubliners, James Joyce demonstrates that Dublin’s society in the early twentieth century is paralyzed. A major agent of the paralysis is Catholicism and thus, religion. Religion bogs down Dubliners, keeping them from advancement and allowing the continuation of a paralyzing routine. Joyce enlightens the reader of these problems through the use of the Catholic virtues. Dublin’s observance of Faith, Hope and Fortitude, and the non-observance of Temperance and Justice are symbolized by the characters and their actions in Dubliners.
Like Candide, Pangloss is not a tenable character; rather, he is a distorted, hyperbolized representation of a philosopher whose beliefs and perspective is considerable linked to his philosophy. Voltaire illustrates two major quandaries intrinsical in Pangloss’s philosophy. First, his philosophy confronts inundating evidence from the authentic world. Pangloss is ravaged by syphilis, proximately hanged, proximately dissected, and confined, yet he perpetuates to espouse optimism. He sticks to his positive views even at the cessation of the novel, when he himself admits that he has reservations in believing some of it.
‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ by William Blake ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ is a collection of poems by W.Blake and its main purpose is to reflect the two contrary states of the human soul. As we can understand from the title, the poems are written under two different categories which tell us the shifting and the transformation of the human soul through life. ‘Innocence’, in this case, can be a referrence to the state of man before the ‘fall’ from heaven—and also from grace of God — into the world of knowledge. With the central figures such as lamb, child, flower, piper etc. , Innocence can be considered according to Blake’s view as the primary state of the human soul.
We know this because “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” is featured in The Tyger. I feel these two poems are complimentary because they contradict each other, just like opposing colours e.g. black and yellow compliment each other and also positive and negative pulses on a magnet compliment each other. There are several similarities between the poems. Both have an animal as the subject and although the structures are different, both are in rhyming couplets.
The Tyger is something more sinister and complicated. Like in this quote “Could twist the sinews of thy heart?/And when thy heart began to beat,/ What dread hand? & what dread feet? (Lines 10-12).” An article by Martin Price, Called Songs of Innocence and Experience, states that “The Lamb, the creator “calls himself a Lamb/ He is meek, & he is mild;/He became a little child.” In The Tyger the creator again is like what he creates… (Martin 17).” Which shows my early statement about Blake’s The Lamb and The Tyger. A similarity between the two poems by Blake would have to be the
Blake reminds the reader that Christ has provided everything from food to clothing to life in general. “The Lamb” was meant to spark a renewal in one’s religious beliefs. In addition, the idea of simplicity and purity in thought is evident in the structure of “The Lamb.” Not only is the poem short in length, but it also makes use of simple word choices. In comparison to “The Lamb” which promotes total faith and devotion to God, William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” focuses on the ideas of religion and creationism versus nature in a more questioning light. “The Lamb” presents creation in a simplistic light of all things being made by God, where as “The Tyger” seeks to understand the motivation behind creation.
William Blake’s “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” – William Blake’s poems “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” can be viewed as summarizations of Blake’s own world views concerning nature and metaphysics, posing deep philosophical questions regarding the structure of the existence and creation. That is to say, through the figures of the respective animals, Blake’s poetry provides an investigation into fundamental themes of what it means to exist in general, postulating the diversity of creation and what such creation means from a greater metaphysical perspective. It is this metaphysical perspective which can be said to harbour Blake’s own religious views, as the poems indicate a certain commitment to Christianity, especially in the poem “The Lamb.” In contrast, “The Tyger” shows this same religious dimension by meditating on the power and diversity of creation itself: the kindness of the Christian God as presented in the lamb is replaced by a god who is subject to his own creation in the form of the tiger. Accordingly, Blake’s careful attention to the physical details of the lamb and the tiger in these two poems becomes a means by which Blake can articulate his views on creation. However, judging by the contrast in the animals in terms of the innocence of the lamb and the violent power of the tiger, Blake illuminates two sides of creation – the passivity of the lamb in the delicacy of its existence, and the overwhelming power of the tiger which shows the capacity for potency within nature, thus evoking the creative potential of God.