The Lamb Literary Elements

The Lamb Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The speaker states that he is a child. This can either be interpreted that he is a literal child, or that he is a child of God.

Form and Meter

The Lamb consists of two stanzas, with each stanza using five rhyming couplets. The poem also uses refrains.

Metaphors and Similes

The Lamb can be seen as a metaphor for Jesus, to emphasize his qualities of meekness and innocence: "For he calls himself a Lamb."

Alliteration and Assonance

Blake uses alliteration in the following line: “He is meek & he is mild”.

Irony

The speaker reveals himself as a child but is ironically wise and eloquent.

Genre

The genre is didactic poetry.

Setting

The setting in the first stanza is rural.

Tone

The tone of the poem is at first descriptive and light, but later becomes darker and more philosophical.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist of the poem is the speaker or the lamb. There is no antagonist.

Major Conflict

The major conflict of the poem is the question of who created the lamb.

Climax

The climax of the poem is when the speaker reveals that God has made the lamb.

Foreshadowing

By asking the Lamb "who made thee," Blake foreshadows the reveal later in the poem.

Understatement

The speaker understates the vastness of God's creation by focusing solely on the lamb.

Allusions

Blake alludes to the traditional biblical depiction of Jesus as a Lamb.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

The lamb is personified as having clothing.

Hyperbole

The speaker says that the voice of the lamb makes all the vales rejoice.

Onomatopoeia

N/A

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