Student Question
Can you summarize the poems "The Lamb" and "The Tyger" line-by-line?
Quick answer:
When it comes to line-by-line summaries of William Blake's "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," as long as you focus on the line and don't try to say too much or too little you should be fine. In "The Lamb," your summaries might want to focus on how the lamb comes off as cuddly and nonthreatening. With "The Tyger," you might want to focus on how the lines work together to create violence, fear, and force.
Line-by-line summaries might seem daunting and tedious, but after you do a couple, you might come to realize that they're a useful way of showing your ability to zero in on a particular part of a poem. It lets you expand on what that one part might be trying to say and how that could relate to the supposed overall message of the poem as a whole.
For William Blake's "The Lamb" and "The Tyger," we'll do the first stanzas, and then we'll leave it up to you to do the rest
First, "The Lamb":
Little Lamb who made thee
- We have a narrator talking to a lamb, asking it a question.
Dost thou know who made thee
- Our narrator repeats its question, which gives the question some urgency.
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
- Does the lamb know why it's alive and...
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who provides it with food?
By the stream & o'er the mead;
- This puts the lamb in an idyllic place (mead might mean meadow).
Gave thee clothing of delight,
- Lamb's wool is soft and some might even say "delightful."
Softest clothing wooly bright;
- This line reinforces the nice and warm quality of lamb's fur.
Gave thee such a tender voice,
- Yes, the lamb is a cute, softhearted creature.
Making all the vales rejoice!
- The lamb is so adorable that everything in the valley sings it praises.
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
- Our narrator repeats the question, as the lamb still hasn't answered it.
Again, you should have the hang of it by now, but let's do the first stanza of "The Tyger" just to be sure:
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
- The first imagery links the tiger to fire and something scary, threatening, and destructive.
In the forests of the night;
- The image of a forest at night adds to the frightful and dark nature of the tiger.
What immortal hand or eye,
- The use of the word "immortal" turns the tiger into something like a god or perhaps even a monster.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
- The symmetry of the tiger and it's commanding appearance inspires fear instead of beauty and admiration.
We hope these examples help and that you can take it the rest of the way.