Rhythm and rhyme

Here, we will provide a few points that can help you analyse and interpret the rhythm and the rhyme in the poem “The Lamb” by William Blake.

The poem rhymes in couplets, which means that the verses rhyme two by two:

Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;  (ll. 1-4)

The only exception is to be found in lines 14-15 and 18-19, where the word “name” does not fully rhyme with the word “lamb”. This helps to draw attention to the fact that this is the central point of the poem: the connection between Christ and the innocent animal addressed in the poem.

As you have seen, the rhyme scheme is simple and follows the AABB pattern, which makes the poem easier to memorise and which also makes it resemble a song or a hymn. This idea...