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"The Lamb" Analysis Paragraph
"The Lamb" by William Blake provides a simple and profound answer to a simple and profound question: Who made us? (the topic sentence states the title and author of the poem as well as the poem's theme). Because the poem addresses a child it takes on the form of a child's song, containing rhymed couplets and repetition (we've taken a fact about the poem and explained the significance of the fact to the poem's overall meaning). Because the poem addresses a child, the answer to the question must be at the level a child can understand. In this case, the Lamb--meaning the Lamb of God, made thee, isn't that great? (this is the simple answer alluded to in the topic sentence).

The answer, although understood by the child, deals with a philosophical religious question that scholars have discussed for centuries (this addresses the profound answer mentioned in the topic sentence), leading one to think that perhaps we all need to become like a little child to understand our eternal nature (note how the author of this paragraph adds a Biblical allusion and ends his paragraph by restating the poem's theme and tying it into his topic sentence).
Poetic Devices and General Observations
"The Tyger" originally appeared in Blake's Songs of Experience. Its companion piece, "The Lamb," appears in Blake's Songs of Innocence. An analysis of "The Tyger" should include a comparison to "The Lamb"
1. Rhyme Scheme - aabb with a near rhyme ending the first and last stanzas, drawing attention to the tiger's "fearful symmetry."
2. Meter and Rhythm - the rhythm is created through short lines and rhyming couplets, similar to "The Lamb."
3. Repetition of "Tyger in line 1, "dare" in lines 7 & 8, "heart" in lines 10 & 11, "what" in lines12, 13, & 15, "Did he" in lines 19-20, and several repeats in stanzas 1 & 2 establish the poem's nursery rhyme like rhythm.
4. Alliteration - alliteration in "The Tyger" abounds and helps create a sing-song rhythm. Examples include the following.
"burning bright" (1)
"distant deeps" (5)
"what wings" (7)
"began to beat" (11)
"dare its deadly" (16)
"he who" (20)
The question an analysis must answer is what is Blake's purpose in using so much alliteration in "The Tyger" (other than to create rhythm(see 7 and 8 below)).
5. Line 1 is an example of synecdoche, a literary device used when a part represents the whole or the whole represents a part. In line 1 "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright" alludes to the predator's eyes.
6. Fire imagery includes "burning bright" in line 1, "burnt the fire of thine eyes" in line 6, "in what furnace was thy brain" in line 14, the entire fourth stanza's resemblance to a forge.
7. Line 20 contains an allusion to Blake's poem "The Lamb." Note the alliteration of "he who" in this line, the most difficult back to back words to say in the entire poem. Coincidence?
8. Line 20 contains the key to understanding the theme of the poem. Blake asks how is it possible for something as innocent as a lamb and as ferocious as a tiger to exist. How can we account for good and evil in the world? How is it possible that human beings can be both good and evil? It's a philosophical dilemma that has confounded scholars for centuries. What do you think?
9. The last stanza serves two purposes: (1) it ties in the first stanza of the poem to the last stanza; (2) it emphasizes the question asked in the previous line.
10. Symbolism: the meaning of symbolism in "The Tyger" answers the previous question. Examples include: (1) the tiger represents the dangers of mortality; (2) the fire imagery symbolizes trials (baptism by fire perhaps); (3) the forest of the night represents unknown realms or challenges; (4) the blacksmith represents the Creator; (5) the fearful symmetry symbolizes the existence of both good and evil, the knowledge that there is opposition in all things, a rather fearful symmetry indeed.