I often hear religious family members and friends attributing their good fortune to God. As an atheist, I always wonder why they thank God for good fortune, but do not blame him for misfortune. Perhaps this idea is relevant in Blake’s “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.” Is he trying to demonstrate how believers tend to praise God for good (the lamb) and yet have difficulty blaming him for bad (the tyger)?
Who is to be more feared, the Tyger itself or the creator of such a “fearful” creature?
Is this poem intended to be an idealistic form of everyday life? Where everyone is supposed to dream of success for the sake of success and do good without expecting anything in return?
The bird keeps singing even when its cold and painful without asking or expecting any food.
In lines 11 – 12, “I dwell in Possibility –” ends with the following: “The spreading wide my narrow Hands / To gather Paradise –.” How is it possible for someone to gather something so abstract and eternal such as Paradise? Is Dickinson referring to how humans are drawn to reach for something beyond our comprehension, fully aware that it is impossible to achieve such a goal?
What makes me wonder is why the lamb is given the indication of innocence not only in nature, but also in higher functions such as the existence of a creator. While the tyger isn’t given any questions to see if it knew what created its viscous nature and image, but questions the morals and reasoning of the creator.
In the lamb Blake uses a lot of periods and statements but in the tiger he uses many question marks. Is the trying to have us question/think about the tiger and have us know the lamb?
Without the bad, would we know what is good? In the poems “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”, without the lamb, would it be possible for the tyger to be deemed such a dreadful creature from the start?
What influenced Dickson to write this poem about a Soul who “selects her own society” and then “shuts the Door”, refusing to let anyone else in? Did Dickson herself do this?
According to the line “That could abash the little Bird, That kept so many warm” the bird is consistently singing that makes everyone happy even though it might be shy why does it keep sing? Is it because it gives us hope and the bird thinks of others rather than itself?
If it is true from the Bible that “For God so loved the world,” why are people referred to lambs and tigers, as lambs are the majority who do not have any advantage and tigers the ones who are already one step ahead of others from the moment of birth? Why are people put into different classes?
“When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lmab make thee?”
(From Blake, “The Tyger”)