The Lamb

“Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?”

In William Blake’s poem, “The Lamb” a little boy asks a lamb who made him. Blake is religious so he refers to Jesus as representing the lamb. Both the lamb and Jesus are supposed to represent peace, meekness, and gentleness. It is interesting that the boy asks this question in the first place because it is so obvious, but at the same time it’s a question everyone ask. Who made us, and how were we made? Through this poem, God is our creator. God is Jesus and the lamb represents Jesus. It is ironic that the child asks the lamb who created him when the one who made him calls himself the lamb.

“He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!”

The boy symbolizes innocence. A child is innocence itself because a child has not seen the horrors of life so they live their childhood thinking the world is good and great until their world come crashing down. But that is what Blake is trying to convey. “The Lamb” is from Blake’s Song’s of Innocence and truly representing innocence by highlighting the greater parts of the world. Although, the poem lacks the reality of the harsh world. In the Song’s of Experience, “The Tiger” shows the ugly and cruel side of the world and religion. Religion is good when it’s not forced onto anyone, but religion can cause war because of one’s beliefs. Seeing these horrible things in life like war and murder takes away any innocence that we might have ever had. Blake shows us that experience ruins innocence. A question to ask is if Blake was innocent or not. Did he remember what innocence really felt like? Or could he only imagine what innocence was really like? In this poem, there is only innocence between the child and the lamb. It also is innocent for a child to be talking to an animal in the first place.