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The Lamb
"Little Lamb who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?..."
The Lamb is a short poem by William Blake that was originally published in 1789 within Songs on Innocence (1789), a work that was later combined with Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794). This was due to Blake writing Songs of Innocence as a contrary to the Songs of Experience.
The Lamb is the counterpart poem to Blake's poem: The Tyger in Songs of Experience.
William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.
Dost thou know who made thee?..."
The Lamb is a short poem by William Blake that was originally published in 1789 within Songs on Innocence (1789), a work that was later combined with Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794). This was due to Blake writing Songs of Innocence as a contrary to the Songs of Experience.
The Lamb is the counterpart poem to Blake's poem: The Tyger in Songs of Experience.
William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
William Blake
1,277 books3,247 followersWilliam Blake (November 28, 1757 - August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.
Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".
Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.
Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."
Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".
Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.
Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 12, 2024
1.5 ☆
Gosh, why did I enjoy this even less than "The Tyger" (despite it being masterfully crafted)...
Gosh, why did I enjoy this even less than "The Tyger" (despite it being masterfully crafted)...
October 5, 2025
1.5/5 ⭐️
August 29, 2021
In The Lamb the speaker is a child. He asks the questions of the lamb about its origins but he himself gives convinced answers. He knows his replies are certain and accurate. It is for the reason that he is not aware of the obscurity of creation and is able to accept immature explanations of existence.
The child in the poem does not pass through any spiritual catastrophe or psychological disagreement, for he is occupied with present actualities of the lamb and with the actualities of his own protected existence.
The questions are of simple nature. Subsequently, the poem is liberated from all sorts of haziness, abstraction, and ambiguity.
Since the speaker in the poem is a child and the questions are of uncomplicated nature and the answers provided are correct. The poet does not resort to any profuse employ of symbols to drive home the truths. The lamb stands for placidness, timidity and compassion. The child here stands for the living evidence of God’s love.
'The Lamb' is the most significant poem in the section of ‘Innocence’ not simply since it advocates the idea of incorruptibility in the simplest way, but also because here we notice the poet extending the world of innocence even to the animals that are of no consequence and ‘base’ to the human eye.
In this poem we see a child patting a lamb and asking if it knows who the giver of its life and bread is. He asks it whether it knows who has given it the silken fleece of spotless white and the thin voice of its bleat. The child himself answers his questions. He defines the Almighty God as one who is known after the name of the lamb who is docile and temperate.
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Since God descended to the earth as infant Jesus he too is called a child. The child, the lamb and the Almighty are all brought fused in a bond to form a solitary celestial entity. The quintessence of the poem lies in these lines.
In the parables of Christ we often come across the imagery of the sheep and shepherd and in the representations of Jeremiah the prophet, we read "Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name, leave us not".
It is from these sources that the poet has drawn the metaphors of the lamb.
The principal markers of incorruptibility – a) the lamb, b) the child and c) God - combine in concert in this poem and the achievement of innocence are almost attained.
The child finds out the manifestation of God in the lamb and himself. The spirituality of lamb is not simply phony; it is manifested in the submissiveness and warmth of the lamb.
The Lamb is thus a sweet hymn of affectionate puerile sentiment, apposite to that perpetual image of modesty; to which the ferocious expressiveness of 'The Tyger', in the ‘Songs of Experience’ is an antitype.
In 'The Lamb' the poet again changes his person to that of a child and renders forth the unadorned juvenile thoughts of his own volition.
Thus, a subterranean religious sensitivity thuds through the poem. The poem is a luminous exercise in Christian theology: the child asks the lamb about God the Creator in the first verse (‘Dost thou know who made thee? and answers his question in the second verse by referring to God in Jesus Christ as Redeemer.)
The God who made the lamb is called a lamb Himself because He was crucified (“Worth is the Lamb that was slain”), and since He became a little child at the Incarnation. Both child and lamb are called by God’s name because two of the decisive attributes of God are His Incarnation and his passion.
So when the poem ends the perception of the nature of God infuses and directs these lines with a force that gathers into itself all the accumulated attributes of God as Creator and God as Redeemer which have been outlined in the poem.
As the threefold vision of ‘In Soft Beulah's Night’ Blake’s poem commemorates an earthly ecstasy in which animals and human beings live in absolute synchronization under the safety and protection of the ever munificent God.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
The child has a simple but pure understanding of God. He reminds the lamb of the benedictions of the Creator bestowed on the lamb. In his solemn prattle he says to the lamb that it is God who gave him life, allowed him to graze by the scream and by the meadow.
The lamb has clothing not just of wool but of delight. And these are all the heavenly gifts.
The child in the poem does not pass through any spiritual catastrophe or psychological disagreement, for he is occupied with present actualities of the lamb and with the actualities of his own protected existence.
The questions are of simple nature. Subsequently, the poem is liberated from all sorts of haziness, abstraction, and ambiguity.
Since the speaker in the poem is a child and the questions are of uncomplicated nature and the answers provided are correct. The poet does not resort to any profuse employ of symbols to drive home the truths. The lamb stands for placidness, timidity and compassion. The child here stands for the living evidence of God’s love.
'The Lamb' is the most significant poem in the section of ‘Innocence’ not simply since it advocates the idea of incorruptibility in the simplest way, but also because here we notice the poet extending the world of innocence even to the animals that are of no consequence and ‘base’ to the human eye.
In this poem we see a child patting a lamb and asking if it knows who the giver of its life and bread is. He asks it whether it knows who has given it the silken fleece of spotless white and the thin voice of its bleat. The child himself answers his questions. He defines the Almighty God as one who is known after the name of the lamb who is docile and temperate.
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Since God descended to the earth as infant Jesus he too is called a child. The child, the lamb and the Almighty are all brought fused in a bond to form a solitary celestial entity. The quintessence of the poem lies in these lines.
In the parables of Christ we often come across the imagery of the sheep and shepherd and in the representations of Jeremiah the prophet, we read "Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name, leave us not".
It is from these sources that the poet has drawn the metaphors of the lamb.
The principal markers of incorruptibility – a) the lamb, b) the child and c) God - combine in concert in this poem and the achievement of innocence are almost attained.
The child finds out the manifestation of God in the lamb and himself. The spirituality of lamb is not simply phony; it is manifested in the submissiveness and warmth of the lamb.
The Lamb is thus a sweet hymn of affectionate puerile sentiment, apposite to that perpetual image of modesty; to which the ferocious expressiveness of 'The Tyger', in the ‘Songs of Experience’ is an antitype.
In 'The Lamb' the poet again changes his person to that of a child and renders forth the unadorned juvenile thoughts of his own volition.
Thus, a subterranean religious sensitivity thuds through the poem. The poem is a luminous exercise in Christian theology: the child asks the lamb about God the Creator in the first verse (‘Dost thou know who made thee? and answers his question in the second verse by referring to God in Jesus Christ as Redeemer.)
The God who made the lamb is called a lamb Himself because He was crucified (“Worth is the Lamb that was slain”), and since He became a little child at the Incarnation. Both child and lamb are called by God’s name because two of the decisive attributes of God are His Incarnation and his passion.
So when the poem ends the perception of the nature of God infuses and directs these lines with a force that gathers into itself all the accumulated attributes of God as Creator and God as Redeemer which have been outlined in the poem.
As the threefold vision of ‘In Soft Beulah's Night’ Blake’s poem commemorates an earthly ecstasy in which animals and human beings live in absolute synchronization under the safety and protection of the ever munificent God.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
The child has a simple but pure understanding of God. He reminds the lamb of the benedictions of the Creator bestowed on the lamb. In his solemn prattle he says to the lamb that it is God who gave him life, allowed him to graze by the scream and by the meadow.
The lamb has clothing not just of wool but of delight. And these are all the heavenly gifts.
December 25, 2023
Blake at his softest 🧁
November 24, 2017
This is such a sweet and poignant poem that any Christian will delight in being able to read and ponder.
January 15, 2020
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
January 17, 2024
The Lamb *** - There is a tenderness in Blake’s observations and writings, and the suggestion of the Divine, e.g. “Little Lamb, who made thee?”
December 21, 2024
How wholesome!
Read
January 16, 2025*Read for class*
February 22, 2025
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Read
January 29, 2026academic text
April 3, 2026
God is so meek and mild for creating such an innocent creature
April 21, 2026
Thanks, Lamb.
June 24, 2019
the lamb is something represented in Christianity as pure and giving. William Blake represents this in this poem.
read for eng1102
read for eng1102
May 22, 2014
This poem is from Blake's Songs of Innocence which featured a series of poems set to music (the music has been lost to time). This is one of the more famous poems in the bunch and has been set to music by a host of composers-most notable being Sir John Tavener whose version introduced me to this poem and the volume it comes from.
April 5, 2026
A high school English teacher once read this poem to us, and I have returned to it again and again since — so sweet and pure! When the world feels overwhelming or complicated, I find comfort in the child’s joyful celebration of a little lamb — a gentle, persistent wonder and a simple love for all that is delightful and light.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews