The Lamb by William Blake — Summary and Analysis
Poet: William Blake
Form/Type: Lyric poem, pastoral poem
Collection: Songs of Innocence (1789)
Curriculum: BA English Honours | Romantic Poetry | Songs of Innocence and Experience
About William Blake
William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. He is one of the most important figures of the Romantic Age, though his work was largely unrecognised during his lifetime. He was born in London and showed artistic and literary talent from childhood. He trained as an engraver and worked as a commercial artist throughout his life, financing his own poetry collections through this craft.
Blake's most celebrated works include the two complementary collections Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), together published as Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Other major works include The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Milton, and Jerusalem. These longer works form part of his personal mythology, which he called the "Prophetic Books."
Blake was a deeply spiritual and unconventional thinker. He rejected the organised religion of his time while holding strong personal Christian beliefs. He was also critical of the Industrial Revolution and what he called "mind-forged manacles" — the mental and social chains that prevent human beings from seeing the divine in the world around them. His poetry often uses simple, song-like language on the surface while carrying deep philosophical and spiritual meaning beneath it.
His recurring themes include innocence versus experience, the contrast between childhood and adulthood, the nature of God and creation, social oppression, and the relationship between the human soul and the divine. "The Lamb" is one of his most straightforward poems and is an ideal starting point for understanding his vision of innocence.
Background and Context
"The Lamb" was published in 1789 as part of Songs of Innocence, a collection of poems that celebrate the state of childhood innocence. Blake later wrote a companion collection, Songs of Experience (1794), which presents the darker, more disillusioned view of the same world. These two collections are meant to be read together as "two contrary states of the human soul."
"The Lamb" has a direct counterpart poem in Songs of Experience: "The Tyger." Where "The Lamb" presents a gentle, innocent Creator who made soft, mild creatures, "The Tyger" asks how the same God could have made something as fierce and terrifying as a tiger. Together, the two poems pose one of Blake's central questions: how can one God be responsible for both tenderness and terror, both innocence and power?
The poem belongs to the pastoral tradition — a literary mode that celebrates simple rural life, nature, and gentle animals as symbols of purity and happiness. In Blake's vocabulary, pastoral settings carry a strong association with joy and innocence. The lamb itself is also a well-established Christian symbol: in the Gospel of John, Jesus is called "the Lamb of God," connecting the animal to sacrifice, purity, and divine love.
This poem was intended to be sung, much like a hymn or nursery rhyme. No musical settings by Blake himself survive, but composers including Vaughan Williams, Sir John Tavener, and Allen Ginsberg have set it to music.
Poem Walkthrough: Stanza by Stanza
The Full Poem
> Little Lamb, who made thee?
> Dost thou know who made thee?
> Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
> By the stream and 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, and he is mild;
> He became a little child.
> I, a child, and thou, a lamb,
> We are called by his name.
> Little Lamb, God bless thee!
> Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Stanza 1: The Question (Lines 1-10)
The poem opens with a child addressing a lamb directly. The child asks a simple but profound question: "Little Lamb, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?" This question is repeated at both the opening and the close of the stanza, creating a frame around the description that follows.
The child then lists the gifts that someone has given the lamb:
The stanza is entirely descriptive and physical. The child sees the lamb before him and marvels at its gentleness, softness, and beauty. Everything about the lamb points to a creator who is kind and loving — someone who gave this creature only good things. The question "who made thee?" hangs in the air, unanswered in this stanza.
Stanza 2: The Answer (Lines 11-20)
In the second stanza, the child answers his own question. He says: "Little Lamb, I'll tell thee," and proceeds to reveal the identity of the creator.
The child's answer has three connected parts:
Part 1: God and the lamb share the same name.
"He is called by thy name, / For he calls himself a Lamb." Jesus Christ is called "the Lamb of God" in the Bible (Gospel of John, 1:29). So the creator of the lamb is himself called by the lamb's name. This is a striking idea: the creature and the creator share a title.
Part 2: God is gentle, just like the lamb.
"He is meek, and he is mild; / He became a little child." Jesus is described as meek (humble, gentle) and mild (gentle, not harsh). And crucially, he entered the world as a child — not as a powerful king or warrior, but as a baby. This connects Jesus to the innocence of childhood, just as the lamb represents innocence in the animal world.
Part 3: The child, the lamb, and Jesus all share one identity.
"I, a child, and thou, a lamb, / We are called by his name." The speaker — a child — now places himself in the same category as the lamb and as Jesus. All three are united: the animal lamb, the human child, and the divine Lamb of God. They are all meek, mild, pure, and called by the same name.
The stanza closes with a blessing: "Little Lamb, God bless thee! / Little Lamb, God bless thee!" The child blesses the lamb with the same warmth that God has shown to both of them.
The shift between the two stanzas is important. The first stanza is descriptive and rural — it deals with physical appearances, meadows, streams, and wool. The second stanza is spiritual — it moves from the visible world to the divine, offering a theological explanation for what the child observed.