The Tyger

William Blake- The Tyger

This my last poem off the list. Hooray!

Tyger... Interesting way of spelling it, don't you think? Well, here's the rest of it:

"Tyger! Tyger! burning bright 
In the forests of the night, 
What immortal hand or eye 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire? 
And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet? 
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee? 
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? "

A poem from the end of the 18th century, interesting, my oldest yet, and yet the last. This poem speaks of what was then a legendary, and extremely exotic beast from foreign lands. The poet seems to be writing from a place of curiosity about the animal, which he knows little about. Most of the lines rhyme with those below them: i.e. Gasp-clasp bright-night etc.  It employs trochaic tetrameter as its meter, which was fairly common at the time. When reading "Tyger", we open a window onto Blake's wonder at this animal, wondering where it roams, what it does. It's almost like a child who has heard of a distant and wondrous beast, and is filled with curiosity about it: What the hand dare seize the fire?  What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry? I can't say that I wondered like that when I was a kid, but the feeling and intent is still the same. Another perspective could be that the poet is contemplating the tiger, perhaps in a cage, and wondering what it does in the wild. In the 1700s, there weren't pictures or books, so if you weren't an explorer, you wouldn't be able to visualize the jungles of South East Asia, and see the tigers hunting their prey. On to the poetic devices: Rhyme is obvious, using an a-a-b-b pattern, but the others are more complex. We see alliteration: burning bright, and personification: the stars threw down their spears, as well as symbolism: The Tiger represents evil, while the lamb represents good; and innocence. Finally, there is use of archaic spelling: eg "tyger", which conveys a further sense of mysticism around the animal.