The Lamb Non - William Blake - Unit II - UG TRB English

               The Lamb Non

•                    William Blake

Author bio:

• 28 Nov 1757 - 12 Aug 1827

• Blake left school at 10. His mother Catherine Blake taught him at home. He went to drawing classes.

• Unrecognized during his life

• Others on him,

• " What is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in English Language - Northrop Frye

• " Far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced" - Jonathan Jones

• " Glorious luminary" " a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors" - William Michael Rossetti 

• Education: Royal Academy of Arts

• His works related to Romantic movement and Pre - Romantic.

• Important friend: THOMAS PAINE ( political activist)

• First biographer of Blake - Alexander Gilchrist

• Blake's wife - Catherine Boucher - illiterate

• Poetical sketches - Blake's first collection of poems appeared in 1783

• 1791 - He illustrated Mary Wollstonecraft's original stories from real life.

• 1793 - Visions of the Daughters of Albion - Talked about enforced chastity and forced marriage.

• Blake used the method of relief etching.

•  Famous engraving by Blake

• Europe supported by Africa and America

• Illustration of the book of Job

• After Blake's death, Irvingite, who held possession of Blake's manuscript, burnt them. ( His tragedies lost,  Micheal Rosetti also burned Blake's work )

• Notebook, An Island in the Moon work not intended for publication saved.

Important works:

Illuminated

• 1789 - Songs of Innocence

• 1794 - Songs of Innocence and Experience

• 1788 - 90 - The Book of Thel

• 1790 - 93 - The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

• 1793 - The Gates of Paradise

• 1793 - Visions of the Daughters of Albion

• 1793 - America a Prophecy

• 1794 - 1821 - Europe a Prophecy

• 1795 - The Song of Los

• 1788 - There is no Natural Religion

• 1794 - 1818 - The First Book of Urizen

• 1788 - All Religion are one

• 1795 - The Book of Los

• 1795 - The Book of Aahania

• 1804 - 10 - Milton

• 1804 - 20 - Jeruselem : The Emancipation of the Giant Albion

Non - Illuminated

1769 - 1777 - Poetical Sketches

1784 - An Island in the Moon

1791 - The French Revolution

1792 - A Song of Liberty ( Published in the Marriage of Heaven and Hell )

1797 - Vala / The four Zoas ( unfinished).

1789 - Tiriel

Important Books Illustrated by Blake:

• Thomas Gray's Poems

• John Milton's Paradise Lost

• The Book of Job

• John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress

• Dante , Divine comedy ( left unfinished at his death)

             The Lamb Non

Little Lamb who made thee 

         Dost thou know who made thee 

Gave thee life & bid thee feed. 

By the stream & o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing wooly bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice! 

         Little Lamb who made thee 

         Dost thou know who made thee 

         Little Lamb I'll tell thee,

         Little Lamb I'll tell thee!

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb: 

He is meek & he is mild, 

He became a little child: 

I a child & thou a lamb, 

We are called by his name.

         Little Lamb God bless thee. 

         Little Lamb God bless thee.

Thee - you

Thou - you 

Thy - your 

Summary: 

• A child asks questions to a lamb about its creation.

• He answers the questions and blesses the lamb in the 2nd Stanza

Form: 

• 2 stanzas; 5 rhymed couplet each

• 20 lines

• A song like quality

Comments :

• 1st stanza rural and descriptive

• 2nd abstract and spiritual

• The child's question is both naive and profound. He answers

• The child speaking to animal valid

• The question and answer leads to ironic knowingness and simple Christian faith

• Lamb - Jesus

• Child - Jesus

Its companion ( Pendant ) poem is The Tyger from Songs of Experience.