The Lamb

“The Lamb” is a poem written by the English poet William Blake, first published in Songs of Innocence in 1789 and later collected in Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1794. A pastoral poem that draws upon the traditions of children’s verse and catechistic teaching, “The Lamb” invites readers to view the natural world with childlike wonder and embrace their own divinity. The poem uses repeated rhetorical questions to frame an argument—albeit a fanciful, childlike one—about the interconnectedness of God, humans, and the natural world. While Blake draws upon conventional Christian symbolism and imagery to shape the poem, his message of communion with God and nature represents a visionary, utopian ideal that defies narrow religious categorization.

Blake is recognized as one of the canonical English poets of the Romantic period, but his work was unappreciated in his lifetime and distinct from the work of his contemporaries. While many Romantic poets sought solace in nature, Blake went a step further by imagining the spiritual dimension of the natural world. He praised the imagination of children, with its innocence and its freedom from the limitations of social and political norms and conventional morality.