Intricacies

Little Lamb by William Blake Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee 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! Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee Little Lamb I'll tell thee, Little Lamb I'll tell thee! 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. Little Lamb God bless thee. Little Lamb God bless thee. The connotation of the word ‘lamb’ has many meanings, but above all, it is symbolic of all the characteristics the animal itself possesses. A lamb is white and always dependent upon a shepherd to guide it. Moreover, a lamb is representative of a certain innocence, frailty, youth. Yet it can also be thought of as a sacrifice, and offering of sorts. In Blake’s poem, there is a constant emphasis on who the creator is and whether or not the little lamb knows who the creator is. This questioning signifies a deeper meaning that continuously fluctuates between whether or not the lamb knows of its own existence before answering whether or not it knows who made it. In the first stanza there is constant questioning, yet by the second stanza everything seems more resolute and steady. Yet between the transitions of the two stanzas there is more than simple questioning and answering. There is a shift in tone as well, for in the first stanza the lamb seems to be docile and guileless, though by the second stanza it is nearly corrupted with the knowledge that the lamb gains through experiences. Furthermore, there is also a religious allusion throughout the poem. With no specifics and shrouded ambiguity in the words ‘he’, ‘I’, or ‘you’ it is almost as if Blake is referring to the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This further leads to more debatable though probably answers. Does God represent knowledge? And furthermore, is Jesus the shepherd or the lamb described? Yet even though these hypotheses remain uncertain, Blake says explicitly in the poem that ‘We are called by his name’ and ‘I a child & thou a lamb’ therefore claiming that both are synonymous and that we possess the same identity and are completely connected to our creator. In a sense, Grendel seems to represent the prototype of a pristine lamb gradually molded into a black sheep. In the beginning, Grendel is clueless as he lives with his mother in some cave that he literally defines as his world until, that is, he discovers the lake and the world outside. This also refers to the gradual evolution experienced by the character of Pluto’s cave as he is enlightened. Grendel, therefore, when he was an infant in his cave perceived a false reality, which he believed in with absolute faith and truthful entirety until the day he stepped out of his proximities. Yet as he evolved into humanity when discovering the human world, he also became more and more corrupted. This can be represented in the fact that Grendel began to notice certain things such as the fat on his mother. Suddenly, he realizes his mother is ugly, gross, disgusting. This recognition is, literally, Grendel’s enlightenment. He now notices the world. Yet the deeper significance also lies in the fact, that Grendel is enlightened four times: humanity, shaper, dragon, Beowulf, and in a fifth sense, almost by his mother but she is mute, therefore rendering her effectiveness. Thus like the lamb described by Blake, Grendel is also molded by multiple persons.