The Lamb
Little lamb, who made thee?Does thou know who made thee,Gave thee life, and bid thee feedBy the stream and o’er the mead;Gave thee clothing of delight,Softest clothing, woolly, bright;Gave thee such a tender voice,Making all the vales rejoice?Little lamb, who made thee?Does thou know who made thee?
Little lamb, I’ll tell thee;Little lamb, I’ll tell thee:He is callèd by thy name,For He calls Himself a Lamb.He is meek, and He is mild,He became a little child.I a child, and thou a lamb,We are callèd by His name.Little lamb, God bless thee!Little lamb, God bless thee!
About this text
The Lamb is in the public domain. This text is taken from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Project Gutenberg ebook #1934; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, The Lamb, in Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1934, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-songs/the-lamb.html, id L02872.
Form and metre
The Lamb is 20 lines in 2 stanzas of 10 lines each. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.5 syllables. 5% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDAA theeA · theeA · feedB · meadB · delightC · brightC · voiceD · rejoiceD · theeA · theeA
- 2 AABCDDCBAA theeA · theeA · nameB · lambC · mildD · childD · lambC · nameB · theeA · theeA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Little lamb, who made thee? | 6 | /˘···· |
| Does thou know who made thee, | 6 | ······ |
| Gave thee life, and bid thee feed | 7 | ······· |
| By the stream and o’er the mead; | 7 | ······· |
| Gave thee clothing of delight, | 7 | ··/˘·˘/ |
| Softest clothing, woolly, bright; | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| Gave thee such a tender voice, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Making all the vales rejoice? | 7 | /˘···˘/ |
| Little lamb, who made thee? | 6 | /˘···· |
| Does thou know who made thee? | 6 | ······ |
| Little lamb, I’ll tell thee; | 6 | /˘···· |
| Little lamb, I’ll tell thee: | 6 | /˘···· |
| He is callèd by thy name, | 6 | ······ |
| For He calls Himself a Lamb. | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| He is meek, and He is mild, | 7 | ······· |
| He became a little child. | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| I a child, and thou a lamb, | 7 | ······· |
| We are callèd by His name. | 6 | ······ |
| Little lamb, God bless thee! | 6 | /˘···· |
| Little lamb, God bless thee! | 6 | /˘···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.