Pastoral. A pastoral poem is verse that presents an idealized image of rural life. As you read “The Lamb” consider whether or not it is a pastoral poem.
Allegory. An allegory is a work in which each element symbolizes, or represents, something else.
Alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. As you read “The Tyger” note the use of alliteration.
Character. A character is a person (or sometimes an animal) who figures in the action of a literary work. What sort of character is the tiger?
Setting. The setting of a literary work is the time and place in which it occurs, together with the details used to create a sense of a particular time and place. As you read, note the details that create the setting of “London.”
Image. An image is a word or phrase that names something that can be seen, heard, touched tasted or smelled.
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Both “The Lamb” and “The Tyger” are included in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. The two poems are almost mirror images of one another in structure. Each of the poems makes use of a regular rhyme scheme and frequent repetition. One uses a symbol for innocence; the other uses a symbol for experience. Blake considered these poems representative of “two contrary states of the human soul.” The poem “London,” like “The Tyger,” is also a song of experience. In this poem, Blake writes poignantly about some of the evils of urban life.
In the Songs of Innocence, Blake presents a vision of the “fallen world”—the world after the expulsion of man from the Garden of Eden—through the naïve eyes of innocence. In The Songs of Experience, he presents this same world in all the truth of its ugliness and fearsomeness. He thought that one must pass through the stage of childlike innocence, to see the world as it is and then to assimilate both visions. In other words, both are true—the world is beautiful and bountiful, and ugly and painful. One might then reach a mature vision of the world and of life which incorporates both, a state he called “organized innocence.”
Make a cluster chart showing what is represented by the symbol of the lamb. In the middle circle write “Lamb” and in the circles radiating out from the center indicate what is being represented.
Make a cluster chart showing the descriptive words that are used to describe the tiger. In the middle circle write “Tiger,” and in the circles radiating out list words and phrases that describe the tiger and his creation.
As you read, jot down the sensory details in “London” in a sensory details chart like the one below.
What images are, for you, symbols of the innocence of childhood, and why?
Describe a childhood belief that has changed for you as you gained the experience of growing up.
Which do you prefer, city life or rural life, and why?
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