An analysis of William Blake's "The Tiger" and "The Lamb"

"The Lamb" is one of the poems in the Songs of Innocence, which was published in 1789. As the contrary poem to "The Lamb", "The Tiger" in the Songs of Experience came 5 years later in 1794. In the fifth stanza of "The Tiger", there is a question asked by Blake "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" Blake questions if the tiger was created by the same being that created the lamb. In the following part …

…little children have grown up to learn the harsh lesson of experience. Childhood turns to adulthood and innocence thus converts to experience is the Law of nature. The tiger, although it is dread, it is full of strength, like the passion and the power of human creativity. Maybe William Blake's own lines from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell can best explain this idea: "Without Contraries there is no Progression..." <Tab/>