National Poetry Month Poem of the Day: "The Lamb" by William Blake

"The Lamb" by William Blake provides a simple and profound answer to a simple and profound question: Who made us? (the topic sentence states the title and author of the poem as well as the poem's theme). Because the poem addresses a child it takes on the form of a child's song, containing rhymed couplets and repetition (we've taken a fact about the poem and explained the significance of the fact to the poem's overall meaning). Because the poem addresses a child, the answer to the question must be at the level a child can understand. In this case, the Lamb--meaning the Lamb of God, made thee, isn't that great? (this is the simple answer alluded to in the topic sentence).

The answer, although understood by the child, deals with a philosophical religious question that scholars have discussed for centuries (this addresses the profound answer mentioned in the topic sentence), leading one to think that perhaps we all need to become like a little child to understand our eternal nature (note how the author of this paragraph adds a Biblical allusion and ends his paragraph by restating the poem's theme and tying it into his topic sentence).

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