英文诗歌分析全文Lamb、tyger、rose

The lamb

1 "The Lamb" is a poem by William Blake, published in Songs of Innocence in 1789. Like many

of Blake's works, the poem is about Christianity. The whole collection is pervaded with a breath

of simplicity and fancy.

Poetic structure

1 rhyme scheme: AA BB CC DD AA AA EF GG FE AA

“The Lamb” has two stanzas, each containing five rhymed couplets.

2 The layout is set up by two stanzas with the refrain: "Little Lamb who made thee? Dost thou

know who made thee?"

In the first stanza, the speaker wonders who the lamb's creator is; the answer lies at the end of the

poem. Here we find a physical description of the lamb, seen as a pure and gentle creature. In the

second stanza, the lamb is compared with the infant Jesus, as well as between the lamb and the

speaker's soul. In the last two lines the speaker identifies the creator: God.

Rhetorical devices

1 The poem begins with the question, “Little Lamb, who made thee?” The speaker, a child, asks

the lamb about its origins: how it came into being, how it acquired its particular manner of feeding,

its “clothing” of wool, its “tender voice.”

2 In the next stanza, the speaker attempts a riddling answer to his own question: the lamb was

made by one who “calls himself a Lamb,” one who resembles in his gentleness both the child

and the lamb.

Repetition in the first and last couplet of each stanza makes these lines into a refrain, and helps to

give the poem its song-like quality. The flowing soft vowel sounds contribute to this effect, and

also suggest the bleating of a lamb or the lisping character of a child’s chant.

Theme

1 The lamb is a common metaphor for Jesus Christ, who is also called the "The Lamb of God"

2 Blake in the songs of innocence，with childish life's point of view，shows a full of love and

kindness, compassion and happy world. The poem has just 20 lines, but depicts the character of

gentleness vividly.

3 The poet’s description about the lamb’s kindness and gentleness, aims to express their feeling

of life and nature, and the yearning for the universe and harmonious understanding.

4 He not only sings praise of gentle lamb, but also the mystical power that can create the lamb.

Here the God, Jesus and the Lamb are just the one thing.

The Tyger

Tyger! ︳Tyger! ︳ burning ︳ bright

In the ︳ forests ︳ of the ︳ night,

What im ︳ mortal ︳ hand or ︳ eye

Could ︳ frame thy ︳ fearful ︳ symmetry?

Analysis: In the this verse, the author compares the fierceness of a tiger to a burning presence in

dark forests. He wonders what immortal power could create such a fearful beast.

* Line 1 is an example of synecdoche(提喻), 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.

In what ︳ distant ︳ deeps or ︳ skies

Burnt the ︳ fire of ︳ thine eyes?

On what ︳ wings dare ︳ he as ︳ pire

What the ︳ hand, dare ︳seize the ︳ fire?

Analysis: Here the poet compares the burning eyes of the tiger to distant fire that only someone

with wings could reach. The poet wonders where such a powerful fire could have come

And what ︳shoulder, ︳ and what ︳art,

Could ︳twist the ︳ sinews ︳ of thy ︳ heart

And when ︳ thy heart ︳ began to ︳ beat,

What dread ︳ hand？and ︳ what dread ︳ feet?

Analysis: In the third stanza we have a metaphor giving us a vision a skillful and powerful

blacksmith creating the tiger's beating heart awakening a powerful beast.

The phrase “...twist the sinews of thy heart" is also an allusion to a hardheartedness that a beast of

prey must have towards the creatures it kills.

What the︳ hammer?︳ what the ︳ chain?

In what︳ furnace︳ was thy ︳ brain?

What the︳ anvil?︳ what dread ︳ grasp

Dare its ︳ deadly ︳ terrors ︳ clasp?

Analysis: This verse continues the allusion to a creator, who, having made the fearsome beast,

must confront with the sheer terror of a tiger's nature

When the ︳ stars threw ︳ down their ︳ spears,

And wa ︳ter’d hea ︳ven with ︳ their tears,

Did he ︳smile his ︳ work to ︳see?

Did he ︳ who made ︳the Lamb ︳make thee?

Analysis: In the fifth stanza,the author, with beautiful rhetoric (personification),describes a

marvelous creation process likening starlight to a symbolic destructive process.

The author wonders whether the creator of the fierce and predatory tiger could make the docile,

gentle lamb. He sees a conflict between the creation of heartless, burning predator and its potential

victim, the lamb.

Tyger! ︳Tyger! ︳burning ︳bright

In the ︳ forests ︳of the ︳ night

What im ︳mortal ︳hand or ︳eye

Dare ︳ frame thy ︳fearful ︳symmetry?

Analysis: The final verse is but a reprise, almost a chorus. It serves the purpose of repeating the

wondrous question of the tiger's creation and gives the reader another chance to enjoy the

rhetorical and already answered question, "What immortal hand or eye?"

The answer lies in the reader's interpretation of creation: Did God create the fearsome along with

the gentle? Why does He allow the tiger to burn in the dark forest, while the lamb gambols in the

glen under the stars of that very creation? The author leaves it up to the reader to decide. The

important thing is the question, not the answer.

Background information: The Tyger" is a poem by the English poet William Blake. It was

published as part of his collection Songs of Experience in 1794. The Cambridge Companion to

William Blake (2003) calls it "the most anthologized poem in English."

解析题目：His choice of "tyger" has usually been interpreted as being for effect, perhaps to render

an "exotic or alien quality of the beast", or because it's not really about a "tiger" at all, but a

metaphor.

The Meter: trochee tetrameter. (the poem is in trochaic tetrameter)

The poem is comprised of six quatrains (A quatrain is a four-line stanza) in rhymed couplets. The

Rhyme Scheme： aa bb with a near rhyme(近似韵) ending the first and last stanzas, drawing

attention to the tiger's "fearful symmetry."

Rhetorical devices

1 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.

2 Alliteration in "The Tyger" abounds and helps create a sing-song rhythm. Examples include the

following:

"burning bright" (1) "frame thy fearful (4) "distant deeps" (5) "what wings" (7)

"began to beat" (11) "dare its deadly" (16) "he who" (20)

3 Symbolism ：

(1) the tiger represents the dangers of mortality; (powerful force with terror, mystery and

violence eg: fearful symmetry, dread hand, obscure in symbolic meaning)

(2)the fire imagery symbolizes trials

(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.

* Symbols

The Lamb: God

Distant Deeps: Hell

The Tiger: Evil (or Satan)

Skies: Heaven

4 Metaphor: Compare the tiger’s eyes to fire.

5 Anaphora: Repetition of what at the beginning of sentences or clauses. (首语重复法)

Example: What dread hand and what dread feet? / What the hammer? what the chain?

Theme

The poem is more about the creator of the tiger than it is about the tiger itself. The poet was at a

loss to explain how the same God who made the lamb could make the tiger. So, the theme is:

humans are incapable of fully understanding the mind of God and the mystery of his handiwork.

COMPARISON between the lamb and the tyger

1 "The Tyger" is the sister poem to “The Lamb" “Songs of Innocence”, a reflection of similar

ideas from a different perspective, but it focuses more on goodness than evil.

2 Both are creation poems

3 Structure of the “The Lamb” is more obviously singular when compared with the complexity of

“The Tiger,” whose complexity is achieved through layered questions without answers, while the

Lamb poses a simple, singular question and then directly answers it.

The sick rose

O Rose, thou art sick. 啊 玫瑰 你病了

The invisible worm 那看不见的虫

That flies in the night 在夜里飞翔

In the howling storm 在呼啸的暴风雨中

Has found out thy bed 发现了你深红色

Of crimson joy, 快活的床

And his dark secret love 他黑色的秘恋

Does thy life destroy. 摧毁了你我的生命

Analysis

rhyme scheme: abcb (2 quatrains or 2 stanzas)

images: rose, worm, storm, bed

1 Line 1: The form of address—"O rose"—is called an apostrophe. The rose here could be a

metaphor for love or passion

2 Line 2-3: "Invisible" might be a metaphor for the worm's quiet act of destruction.

3 Line 4: The speaker mentions a "howling storm," which gives the poem a more ominous tone.

"Howling" reminds us of dogs or wolves; the sounds of those animals are here a metaphor for the

storm

4 Line 5-6: "Bed" might refer to a plot of ground in which the rose is growing, which it's not a

literal bed with pillows, but a metaphor for the plot of ground. Or bed can refer to the rose's petals,

which is a place where insects rest or sleep. In addition, the worm manages to worm his way into

the rose's bed, which suggests some kind of sexual act.

5 Lines 7-8: The speaker describes how the worm "destroys" the rose with his "dark secret love."

It is an example of personification, where human characteristics or emotions (love) are attributed

to non-human things (namely the worm).

The Rose The rose exists as a beautiful object that has become infected by a worm; also as a

literary rose, the conventional symbol of love. It symbolizes innocence, nature and even

pre-industrial England fall under this more encompassing category. The speaker opens by

apostrophizing the rose, immediately setting a tone of despair that is intensified by the epithet of

“sick”. The rose resides in a “bed”, which is a pun denoting both a flower bed and a human one.

The sexual undertones are elevated by the evocation of “crimson joy”, which is almost paradox as

the said color is distinctly sinister, often used to describe the appearance of blood and therefore

tying into the poem’s suggestions of death. A literal death is not suggested, however, but a

figurative one, as the rose's life is irreparably "destroy[ed]"

The Worm The worm, meanwhile, symbolizes the destruction of this unspoiled state, its

appearance evoking biblical images of the serpent in Eden. Worms are usually earthbound, and

symbolize death and decay, therefore suggesting that it symbolizes something more sinister than

death - in this case, the fall of mankind. The “bed” into which the worm creeps denotes both the

natural flowerbed and also the lovers’ bed. The rose is sick, and the poem implies that love is sick

as well, and it can also refer to the moral corruption. The “crimson joy” and the “dark secret love”

imply both sexual pleasure and shame, which Blake thought was perverted and unhealthy.