The Lamb

Summary

The Lamb is a short poem from William Blake's Songs of Innocence, first etched and printed in 1789 and later bound with Songs of Experience in 1794, where its partner poem is The Tiger. It has two stanzas of ten lines each, spoken by a child to a lamb in a meadow. In the first stanza the child asks a series of questions: Little lamb, who made thee? Who gave you life and bid you feed by the stream and over the meadow, who gave you your clothing of delight, soft, woolly and bright, and such a tender voice that makes all the valleys rejoice? The stanza ends by repeating the question: Little lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee? In the second stanza the child answers. The maker is called by the lamb's own name, for He calls Himself a Lamb. He is meek and mild, and He became a little child. So the child and the lamb are both called by His name, and the poem ends with a blessing: Little lamb, God bless thee! The poem is a simple catechism in song. Its questions and answers echo the way children learned the faith by question and answer, and its central idea comes from the New Testament, where John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God and where Christ is born as a child. In Blake's illuminated page a little boy stands before a lamb beside a cottage, under arching trees. The poem's gentle rhythm, its repeated lines and its rhymed couplets make it easy for young children to learn by heart. Read beside The Tiger, which asks the same question about a terrifying creature and receives no answer, The Lamb represents the state of innocence: trust in a Creator who is gentle, near and loving.

Top Lessons

• Who made thee?

  The poem teaches that God is the Maker of every creature.

• Christ the Lamb

  The poem's answer is Jesus, the Lamb of God, who became a child.

• Question and answer

  The poem is built like a catechism, with a question stanza and an answer stanza.

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