18 pages • 36 minutes read
Night
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Symbols & Motifs
Lambs and Sheep
Lambs and sheep are some of the most religiously charged animals in Christianity. Metaphors identifying Christians as sheep appear as early as the New Testament, where Christ identified his relationship to humanity as a shepherd to sheep. Throughout most of history, shepherding was a lowly profession. Christ’s identification as the shepherd of humanity paints him as a meek and non-violent leader. This meekness reflects Blake’s emphasis on the meek inheriting the afterlife (See: Themes). At the same time, however, the shepherd is necessary to prevent the sheep from wandering from the flock, where “wolves and tigers howl for prey” (Line 25).
In early Christian belief, lambs and sheep were also commonly used in animal sacrifice rituals. These animals were preferred over others due to a belief that they are more innocent. This belief extends to Christ’s martyrdom. Christians refer to Christ as the “Lamb of God,” due to God’s sacrifice of Christ for the sake of humanity. In Blake’s poem, the lion connects the two by thinking on “Him who bore thy name” (Line 43) while lying with the lamb.
The Lion
Distinct from both the livestock and the predators in the poem, the lion in “Night” serves as another aspect of Christ. Lions are the king of animals in a parallel way that Christ, in Christian theology, is the king of kings. The lion’s “bright mane” (Line 46) that “Shall shine like the gold” (Line 47) references an earlier medieval idea that the lion’s mane represents a halo. Christ descended from the tribe of Judah and is often understood to be the “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5.5).
Lions often play the role of humanity’s judge in Christian artwork, and they are often depicted with a book or scroll. Like the lion in Blake’s poem, who “guards o’er the fold” (Line 48), or the lamb’s enclosure, lions are also depicted as beacons of light that ward off darkness and the danger associated with it. The lion also draws on ancient associations between the lion’s “bight mane” (Line 46) and the sun.
With the dual association of Christ with lambs and lions, the final stanza of Blake’s poem represents a coming together of both aspects of Christ.
The Angels’ Feet
One of the most telling choices Blake makes in “Night” is to focus on the angel’s feet. A conventional reading of the lines “the feet of angels bright; Unseen they pour blessing” (Lines 12-13) would associate “they” with the angels. A literal reading, however, associates “they” and the “blessing[s]” with the subject of the previous sentence: the angels’ feet.
Blake’s emphasis on the angels’ feet humanizes the celestial beings. Rather than highlight their wings, which are often the single characteristic differentiating angels from humans, Blake gives the angels a human mode of transport. Blake’s angels walk and contact the earth in the same material way as all of humanity. This suggests that the angels also exist in the world in much the same way—as a co-mingling of spirit and flesh like Christ or the lion. Since the angels’ feet are what “pour blessing / And joy” (Lines 13-14) upon creatures, the poem’s speaker suggests that their mere contact with the earth is enough.
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By William Blake
