Poetry Essay

Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said, “I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry: that is, prose= words in their best order; poetry= the best words in the best order.” In his Songs of Innocence and Experience, William Blake often creates two poems that highlight his central ideas. Each duo would contain a different view, mainly positive and negative, to depict a common theme. In his pair The Lamb, and The Tiger, Blake rises the question of origin and creation with respect to religion. Just as Coleridge remarked that poetry consisted of the “best words in the best order”, Blake’s poetry makes use of diction that involves the best word choice, proving Coleridge’s description.

In his positive poem, The Lamb, Blake’s speaker continually questions a lamb, “who made thee?” By using rhyming couplets that give the poem a song- like quality, one may infer that the speaker is a child. The softness of the words that Blake included furthers the tranquility and mildness of the poem. The flowing l’s and soft repeating vowel sounds contribute to the effect and also create a beat that focuses on the nativity of a child’s wondering, while ultimately innocently questioning creation and religion.

On the other hand, Blake’s The Tiger makes use of harsher tones and rhythm. While The Lamb uses soft and song-like words, The Tiger uses hard and cacophonous words, alluding to the demanding nature of the poem. Along with the hard consonant sounds, the rhythm and rhyming suggest a hammering beat that contributes to the commanding question of creation. Blake’s rough adjective choice contrasts The Lamb’s euphonious diction. This negative side of the question, “Who made thee?” makes the speaker wonder “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”

As both positive and negative sides are represented with The Lamb and The Tiger, word choice helps to convey the overall underlying theme. So, when Coleridge described poetry as using the best words, William Blake truly and definitely proved it.