William Blake Argument

Whenever a disaster or catastrophe occurs, most people reach the questioning state of mind. Often times, people ask why such a thing would happen or who caused it. Some people may even question if God exists and why would he let something so terrible happen. God is known as the lord and savior to most, but why hasn’t he saved the world from terrible things? Believe it or not, these questions have been asked for centuries, and William Blake was one of the first writers to ever publish content that questioned God. He is well known for his two books, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, that show very contrasting viewpoints on what it is like to be innocent versus what it is like to have experience in the world. In William Blake’s poems,

For example, the Tyger is described by the words “fire,”(Blake, “Tyger” 8) “dread,”(Blake, Tyger, 2), and “deadly terrors,”(Blake, “Tyger, 12) which is the complete opposite of the kind of tone Blake wrote for the Lamb., like “delight,”(Blake, “Lamb” 5) “wooly bright,” (Blake, “Lamb” 5) and “tender”(Blake, “Lamb” 7). This diction also sets the tone for “The Tyger,” and it adds to the idea Blake has that religion makes people oblivious to the evils of the world. He thinks that children should be innocent, but maybe not through religion, as it will not always protect them from the “fearful symmetry,”(Blake, “Tyger” 24) of the world. “What immortal hand or eye/ Dare frame thy fearful symmetry,” is questioning why any god, not just the Christian God, would create such evil in the world because religion is supposed to promote happiness and most of the time, protection from evil. He even does to ask “Did he smile his work to see,”(Blake, “Tyger” 19) which is suggesting that maybe God himself not only caused these problems but also gladly and willingly did so. Kind of portraying God as this maniacal figure, because while the Tyger is bad, he who made the Tyger is even in worse. On the contrary, William Blake uses a far

He describes the Lamb by textures, using the lines “softest clothing wooly bright,”(Blake, “Lamb” 6) and “Gave thee such a tender voice,”(Blake, “Lamb” 7) to show that the Lamb is very soft and gentle. However, Blake describes the Tyger to be “...burning bright/ in the forests of the night” (Blake “Tyger” 1-2), which is a comparison of the Tyger to a forest fire: something that is very destructive and can wipe out an entire ecosystem. This shows that the Tyger is not merely one thing, like an animal, but actually an entire force of evil that appears to be everywhere. Another example of how the Tyger is everywhere would be when Blake begins discussing anatomical structures like “shoulder,”(Blake, “Tyger “ 9) “heart,”(Blake, “Tyger” 10) “hand,” (Blake, “Tyger” 12), or even “brain,” (Blake, “Tyger” 14) The contrast of elements used in the two poems are very apparent and Blake wanted to show the Lamb’s weakness and innocence versus The Tyger’s