Night

“The Lamb” by William Blake (1789)

“The Lamb” was first published alongside “Night” in Blake’s Songs of Innocence. Since many of Blake’s poems in this collection are quite short, and since Blake often relies on idiosyncratic metaphors, it is essential to compare his works with one another. In “The Lamb,” Blake draws a fairly traditional connection between Christ and the image of the lamb, which further develops in “Night.” The themes of divine grace and meekness are also explored in this poem. Blake’s speaker states outright that Christ “calls himself a Lamb: / He is meek & he is mild” (Lines 14-15).

“The Tyger” by William Blake (1794)

From the Songs of Experience section of Songs of Innocence and of Experience, “The Tyger” is perhaps Blake’s best known poem. Like many poems in Songs of Experience, “The Tyger” reflects the sentiments of the poems in Songs of Innocence, but colors them in a darker, more mature way. “The Tyger” focuses on a carnivore, an animal that must resort to violence in order to live. The tiger’s “night” (Line 2) is much different than the same time in “Night.” The speaker shows reverence for the tiger but is forced to wonder, “[d]id he who made the Lamb make thee?” (Line 20).