William Blake's "The Lamb" is a highly symbolic poem. The lamb, in the poem and more widely, symbolizes innocence and sacrifice. This is why Jesus was called the lamb of God, because Jesus was, according to Christianity, innocent of sin and sacrificed himself to save mankind. The poem is thus at once a celebration of the lamb as a beautiful, innocent creature made by God, as well as a celebration of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he made.
The character of "the noble savage" is a stock character in literature who represents the prelapsarian innocence of man before man became corrupted by civilization. The lamb is, in this sense, a "noble savage" character—as was, of course, Jesus Christ.
This poem is taken from Blake's collection of poems entitled, "Songs of Innocence." In this collection, Blake celebrates the innocence of man but highlights the industrial revolution as the cause of man's fall from grace. Blake uses the lamb and Christ, and the figure of "the noble savage" that they both represent, to highlight how innocent man was before the industrial revolution. In his companion collection entitled "Songs of Experience," Blake then highlights, by contrast, the ways in which humanity has become corrupted and fallen from grace largely because of the industrial revolution.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
What is the interpretation of Blake's "The Lamb" through a focused discussion on a religious perspective that also includes the figure of the "noble savage"?
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