Literary study teaches us to pay close

attention to language.

FIGURATIVE Many interpretations focus on figures of

speech - similes and metaphors,

LANGUAGE metonymns and personifications.

The figurative process is complex, and it

LAMB THOMAS MCLAUGHLIN is not limited to poetry.

William Blake's The Lamb Kinds of Figures

This poem is deceptively simple.
It is both a celebration and a critique of the
clear naive thinking of children.
Speaker - A child talking to a lamb (theology)
Simple language - child's innocent insight
Basic sentence patterns and common words -
appropriate to age and attitude of the speaker
Simple vocabulary in a system of figures of
speech which complicate the
poem"Figurative" - contrast with "proper"
Figures of speech twist the meaning of a word
CHILD - Trope (Greek word for figures) means "turn,
twist"
Rhetoric - study of figures
Metaphor - master/central figure; involves a transfer
of meaning between words
"clothing of delight" - wool of lambs
Personification - characteristics of a human subject
is transferred to an inhuman object
echo as the valley's rejoicing
Apostrophe - a speech directed at an non-responsive
object or being; a form of personification
The entire poem is an apostrophe where a child
speaks to the lamb
Not present in the poem:
Simile - comparison of terms
"Her lips red as wine"
Metonymy - transfer of meaning on the basis of
associations
"The Crown" speaks of the king

William Blake's The Lamb (Analysis) / Discussion on Language and Figures of Speech
First stanza is filled with vivid "figures of speech" while the second stanza is mostly literal
"maker" of the lamb as Jesus; tells the story of how Christ's deliberate actions establish the relationships that
make the poem's metaphors possible
"primal" words - basic human actions/objects but with a richness of implication
"bless" - derives historically from the word "blood"; means to cleanse using blood
"meek" and "mild" - both have a history of reference to the tactile, sensory world - both at one time meant
"soft, slippery" (The modern meanings are a trope on these earlier meanings.)
create a complex image of Christ in combination with powerful figure Christ the maker
"make" - derives from the function of kneading, pressing (to a "meek and mild" substance)
The clearest example in "The Lamb" is the fact that the entire poem is based on the old personification of the
lamb as innocent.
CHRIST Figures ask the reader to think in terms of a complex system of categories and analogies in order to make sense of
them, while language is a conceptual grid, a system of values, through which we experience reality.
Femininity - association of women to words such as "chick, cat, bitch, and fox" that lead to cultural biases
Figures play a powerful role even in philosophy and science
"Idea" - derives from Greek word for "to see"
Freud explaining the meaning of a dream - identification (like metaphor) & displacement (like metonymy)
If all levels of thought are figurative, the power in the act of perception and understanding seems to lie in
language.
Language is part of the fabric of social and political life.
It shapes our perceptions, but it also is shaped by its social context.
A powerful example of eloquence in our culture is advertising, which uses figurative thinking very extensively.
Figurative language is a set of systems open to play.

Conclusion
If figures tell us anything, it's that meaning is up for grabs, that the world can be shaped
in an endless variety of forms, that language is a battleground of value systems.
WOOL