SEMESTER II CC4

Songs of Innocence and Experience

Synopses and commentary
Songs of Experience
The Tyger
The Tyger - Imagery, symbolism and themes
Imagery and symbolism
Themes
How the human mind sees the nature of the world
and its creator
God in man's image
Imagery and symbolism
Blake makes many references to Greek and Roman
mythology in his poetry. Myths are more than
stories; they were told to suggest some truths about
human nature and experiences or to explain how
 the world has become the way it is. They are
appropriate in presenting The Tyger because the
poem deals with ideas about our understanding of
life. Like many writers in the Christian tradition,
Blake also combines classical with biblical symbols,
images and stories.

On what wings dare he aspire – This seems to allude

primarily to angels, in particular to the fallen angels
who aspired to overthrow God and were cast down
into Hell. This would suggest that the Icarusspeaker
is inclined to believe that the force who made the
tiger is not God but a demonic power, in opposition
to God.

It is often seen, also, as a possible allusion to the

classical tale of Icarus. Icarus desired to fly and his
father made him wings of wax. These wings melted
when he flew too near to the sun. As a symbol of
humankind aspiring beyond its limits, it suggests that
this creator is being extremely audacious in creating
this beast, almost going beyond his own limits.

What the hand dare seize the fire? – Many critics

see here a possible allusion to Prometheus who
stole fire from the gods to help humankind. This
would make it another symbol of daring aspiration.
Prometheus' action was benevolent but the context
in which this occurs suggests something dreadful
about the hand seizing the fire. It is as though the
speaker is possessed by the ferocity and power of
the tiger; that he is blind to the possibility of
something beneficent lying within it.

Hammer .. furnace .. anvil – This is an allusion to

Hephaestus, the Greek blacksmith god of fire. His
symbols are a hammer and anvil. HepheastusSome
legends say that Prometheus stole fire from
Hephaestus' forge and was punished by him. It
would suggest that this creator is seen as demonic
rather than benevolent.
 In his poem Paradise Lost, Milton, an influence on
Blake, linked this story of Hephaestus with the fall of
the angels after their rebellion against God. Milton
presented Hephaestus as the creator of
Pandemonium, the dwelling-place of all the demons.
This would link this image with those of wings and of
the furnace.

‘When the stars threw down their spears' - is

another allusion to the fall of the angels. It suggests
that Blake's primary thought is to link the images of
wings, seizing fire and throwing down spears with
Milton's account of the fall of the angels and the
figure of Hephaestus as a demonic figure rather than
a benevolent god.

The use of this complex of images suggests the mind

of the speaker. He sees ferocious power, daring and
energy at the heart of creation, his language
suggesting the fascination this vision exerts. Blake
here may also be alluding to the revolutionary spirit
of the age, when the ‘Terror' was unleashed by
French Revolutionaries audaciously seizing power
(see Social / political background > The spirit of
rebellion – politics).

The Lamb - Blake here alludes to The Lamb (I) and to

biblical tradition in the line, ‘Did he who made the
Lamb make thee?' The Lamb represents all that is
gentle, tender, innocent, playful and mild in
creation. It represents ideas of divinity as found in
Jesus. He is referred to as ‘the Lamb of God' who
takes away the sins of the world in John 1:29. He is
also called a lamb in 1 Peter 1:19 and is identified as
a sacrificial lamb in 1 Corinthians 5:7. However, this
lamb is not a soft, woolly and cuddly animal but a
sacrificial victim whom Christians believe achieves
victory over evil for humanity. Thus Blake is drawing
together the contraries of dark and light, of might
and tenderness, of dark forces and their conqueror.
 Investigating imagery and symbolism

How does Blake's use of the story of Hephaestus add

to your understanding of the poem?
Themes
How the human mind sees the nature of the world
and its creator
According to Blake, ‘contraries' are facts about the
world and about the nature of the creative force
behind it. For example, ferocious power and energy
exist alongside what is fragile and tender. Humans
falsify their understanding of the creator and of the
human beings made ‘in his image' when one of
these dimensions is excluded from the picture. This
creates unnecessary questions and produces
unhealthy splits between what are understood as
forces of good and forces of evil.

According to the Bible, Heaven and Hell impinge on

human experience. Thus, the powerful energies
 within the world and the energies and instincts
within human beings are necessary and beautiful.
They become destructive when they are either
denied or seen as the sole factor in life and
experience. Blake's sub-theme is that vision based
wholly on experience is as incomplete as the
inadequacy of ignorant innocence.

God in man's image

Blake disagreed with the creation of the image of an
external God-figure, as simply being a projection of
human needs and attitudes. Blake felt that merely
human understanding created a limiting vision of the
creator, simply as a projection of its own human
qualities:

Those who see only gentleness and tenderness in

nature and in themselves produce an image of a
creator who is mild and gentle but lacks energy and
power
Those who have fallen into divided selfhood see the
creator only in terms of their own capacity for
jealousy, cruelty and possessiveness. They create an
image of God as a tyrant who is a tyrannical ruler
and must be appeased.
Here, the speaker struggles to hold together the
qualities of the lamb and the tiger and, therefore,
seems to believe in separate creators and in the
malevolent nature of the creator of the tiger.

Songs of Innocence and Experience

Synopses and commentary
 Songs of Innocence
The Lamb
The Lamb - Imagery, symbolism and themes
Imagery and symbolism
Themes
The nature of innocence
How the human mind sees the nature of the world
and its creator
God in man's image
Imagery and symbolism
Blake was concerned to express what he believed
was his true understanding of Christianity. He was
writing for a public that, for the most part, was
Christian and shared Blake's familiarity with the
Bible. Thus, he used Christian images that he knew
his readers would recognise, but in ways which
questioned how the image was commonly
understood. Here he uses two images, that of the
 lamb and the child, and draws on related biblical
ideas.

The poem is in the pastoral tradition of an idyllic

rural scene, with words suggesting that everything is
perfection – ‘delight', ‘softest', ‘bright', ‘tender',
‘rejoice'.

Photo by Canadian Centre for International Studies

and Cooperation, available through Creative
CommonsBy the stream….an allusion to Psalms 23:1-
6, in which God is a shepherd tending his flock and
his people are sheep and lambs needing care and
protection

For he calls himself a lamb – Jesus is called ‘the

Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world'
in John 1:29. He is also called a lamb in 1 Peter 1:19
and is identified as a sacrificial lamb in 1 Corinthians
5:7. This lamb is not a soft, woolly and cuddly animal
but a sacrificial victim. He is associated with human
violence and treachery, with the consequences of
evil. The context and connotations of these well
known references are very different from the image
of the lamb in the poem.

He is meek and he is mild – In a famous lesson given

by Jesus, known as the Beatitudes, the quality of
meekness is praised:

‘Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the

earth'. (Matthew 5:5)
Jesus is portrayed as meek like a lamb before his
accusers in Isaiah 53:7. Again, the context for this
meekness and mildness is the experience of human
violence and injustice.

He became a little child – at one level, this is an

image of innocence and gentleness. In the Gospels,
Jesus says that the kingdom of God belongs to those
 who become like little children in their innocence
and humility. However, the Gospel accounts of
Jesus' birth and childhood include experience of
human violence and so emphasise the vulnerability
of the child:

He is acclaimed by the prophet Simeon as one who

will bring about the fall and rise of many (Luke 2:34-
35)
Then his parents become refugees to escape King
Herod's attempts to kill Jesus by ordering the
slaughter of all boys under two (see Matthew 2:16–
18).
Investigating imagery and symbolism

Click the above Bible references

How does the biblical context affect your
understanding of the way in which the lamb and
child images are used in the poem?
Themes
 The nature of innocence
The poem introduces the theme of the vulnerability
of innocence and of the incomplete vision of the
innocent speaker. The child's view is limited on
account of an absence of awareness of the total
reality of human experience.

How the human mind sees the nature of the world

and its creator
According to Blake, ‘contraries' are facts about the
world and about the nature of the creative force
behind it. For example, ferocious power and energy
exist alongside what is fragile and tender. Humans
falsify their understanding of the creator and of the
human beings made ‘in his image' when one of
these dimensions is excluded from the picture. This
creates unnecessary questions and produces
unhealthy splits between what are understood as
forces of good and forces of evil.
 The child sees the creator only as like a lamb and a
child. The reader knows there are other forces at
play in creation that the child cannot see. And if they
are in creation. are they not also in the creator?

God in man's image

Blake felt that merely human understanding created
a limiting vision of the creator, simply as a projection
of its own human qualities:

Those, like the innocent child here, who see only

gentleness and tenderness in nature and in
themselves, produce an image of a creator who is
mild and gentle but lacks energy and power
Those who have fallen into divided selfhood see the
creator only in terms of their own capacity for
jealousy, cruelty and possessiveness. They create an
image of God as a tyrant who is a tyrannical ruler
and must be appeased
Here, the innocent child can imagine only a tender,
gentle creator because this is all he himself knows.