Examine Blake’s twin poems ‘The tyger’ and ‘The Lamb’ as ‘two aspects of God and two states of man’.Blake’s twin poems ‘The...

Blake published "The Tyger" in his collection entitled
Songs of Experience, and "The Lamb" in his collection entitled
Songs of Innocence. Generally, the two natures depicted in the poem
can be described as savagery and innocence.

Describing God
in terms of these two words is simple. Both poems wonder at creation. In "The Tyger" the
central question is "What immortal hand or eye/could frame thy fearful symmetry?" This
is saying, basically, what could possibly have created such a powerful creature? "The
Tyger" points out the powerful nature of God, and even questions if possibly the devil
could have made such a brutal, fiery creature as a
tiger.

"The Lamb" also relates to creation, but in a
different way. Instead of asking who made the lamb, the narrator is telling the lamb who
made him/her. The lamb's gentle nature is how God is usually depicted in Christianity,
especially by Jesus.

The two aspects of man depicted in the
poems are experience (usually seen as corrupt or evil during the Romantic period) and
innocence. "The Tyger" shows the experience side of man by referring to war: "When the
stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their
tears:
Did he smile his work to see?"
 and industry: "What the
hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy
brain?"

In "The Lamb" the narrator remarks that Lamb and
Man are both made in God's image and called by God's name. "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"