THE TYGER

Commentary

The opening question enacts what will be the single dramatic gesture of the poem,
and each subsequent stanza elaborates on this conception. Blake is building on the
conventional idea that nature, like a work of art, must in some way contain a
reflection of its creator. The tiger is strikingly beautiful yet also horrific in its
capacity for violence. What kind of a God, then, could or would design such a
terrifying beast as the tiger? In more general terms, what does the undeniable
existence of evil and violence in the world tell us about the nature of God, and what
does it mean to live in a world where a being can at once contain both beauty and
horror?

The tiger initially appears as a strikingly sensuous image. However, as the poem
progresses, it takes on a symbolic character, and comes to embody the spiritual and
moral problem the poem explores: perfectly beautiful and yet perfectly destructive,
Blakes tiger becomes the symbolic center for an investigation into the presence of
evil in the world. Since the tigers remarkable nature exists both in physical and
moral terms, the speakers questions about its origin must also encompass both
physical and moral dimensions. The poems series of questions repeatedly ask what
sort of physical creative capacity the fearful symmetry of the tiger bespeaks;
assumedly only a very strong and powerful being could be capable of such a
creation.

The smithy represents a traditional image of artistic creation; here Blake applies it
to the divine creation of the natural world. The forging of the tiger suggests a very
physical, laborious, and deliberate kind of making; it emphasizes the awesome
physical presence of the tiger and precludes the idea that such a creation could
have been in any way accidentally or haphazardly produced. It also continues from
the first description of the tiger the imagery of fire with its simultaneous
connotations of creation, purification, and destruction. The speaker stands in awe of
the tiger as a sheer physical and aesthetic achievement, even as he recoils in horror
from the moral implications of such a creation; for the poem addresses not only the
question of who could make such a creature as the tiger, but who would perform
this act. This is a question of creative responsibility and of will, and the poet
carefully includes this moral question with the consideration of physical power.
Note, in the third stanza, the parallelism of shoulder and art, as well as the fact
that it is not just the body but also the heart of the tiger that is being forged. The
repeated use of word the dare to replace the could of the first stanza introduces
a dimension of aspiration and willfulness into the sheer might of the creative act.

The reference to the lamb in the penultimate stanza reminds the reader that a tiger
and a lamb have been created by the same God, and raises questions about the
implications of this. It also invites a contrast between the perspectives of
experience and innocence represented here and in the poem The Lamb.The
Tyger consists entirely of unanswered questions, and the poet leaves us to awe at
the complexity of creation, the sheer magnitude of Gods power, and the
inscrutability of divine will. The perspective of experience in this poem involves a
sophisticated acknowledgment of what is unexplainable in the universe, presenting
evil as the prime example of something that cannot be denied, but will not
withstand facile explanation, either. The open awe of The Tyger contrasts with the
easy confidence, in The Lamb, of a childs innocent faith in a benevolent universe.

Analysis of The Tyger za prezentaciju

William Blake structured his poem with six Quatrains, or four line stanzas. In these stanzas, he
uses a variety of rhyming couplets, repition, powerful imagery and alot of rhetorical questions to
enhance the piece.
He begins the first quatrain with Tyger! Tyger!burning bright. Right away he uses repition to
catch the readers eye. The word Tyger is a symbol of all creation. In his poem, The Lamb,
he uses the Lamb as a symbol of innocent mankind, where as the Tyger is a much more wild,
mysterious and ferocious animal capable of great good and terrifying evil. Blake then supports
that idea by describing the Tyger as Burning Bright The burning bright meaning being so
ferocious, being so capable, so intelligent, and having the power to do anything. Going along
with the idea of the Tyger being a wild, mysterious creature, he uses powerful imagery with the
line In the forests of the night. This imagery creats an awesome scene of a dark, mysterious
environment in which the Tyger is lurking. This suggests that the Tyger is like a creature of the
night, very dark, very mysterious, and again, capable of doing unknown goods and evils. Blake
ends his first quatrain with a rhetorical question. what immortal hand or eye could frame thy
fearful symmetry? The immortal hand or eye Blake uses is referring to a God. So he is saying,
what God could create or frame somethin g that is both beautiful, symmetrical, and also so
terrifying and fearful. The God who created such a creature is fearful because he made this
beautiul creature of mankind to have free will. With free will means that they can choose to do
right and wrong, and that in intself is terrifying.
Blake begins the second quatrain of the piece with some imagery as well as another rhetorical
question. In what distant deeps or skies burnt the fire of thing eyes? By the terms distand
deeps or skies, Blake is using an allusion to create a picture of Heaven and Hell. The line Burnt
the fire of thine eyes is directed at God. These are Gods eyes. Blake is asking, who was the
God who created the Tyger. Was he the God in heaven/skies or was he created by Lucifer in
hell or distant deeps(Source). The next two lines are more rhetorical questions where he asks
on what wings dare he aspire? and what the hand dare sieze the fire? Again, he is wondering
what God could create such a creature like the tyger. Was he a God who is sitting on wings? Or
is he a God who has to work with a blazing fire (Source). However, Blake was known to like
using the Greek Gods in his works. The question On what wings dare he aspire? could refer to
Icarus. Icarus created wings so that he could fly free of a labrynth (Source). The second
rhetorical question What the hand dare seize the fire? could refer to the God Prometheus.
Prometheus is a Gode who stole fire from Zeus and gave that fire to mankind. So Blakes aksing
who would dare seize the fire with thier hands. Well, Prometheus dared to seize the fire so he
could share it with man (Source). Each question used powerful images to enhance the content
of the text.
In Blakes third stanza or quatrain, he uses yet another rhetorical question, directed to ask Who
created this creature? He uses powerful imagery to provide a picture of a God literally molding/
creating the tyger. And what shoulder, and what art could twist the sinews of thy heart? In
these lines, the thy is referring to the tyger. Could twist the sinews of thy (Tygers) heart.
Blake used the word twisted to remind us of the free will God made man with. The twisted is
also to remind how twisted or sometimes corrupt Humans can be (Source). Later in the
stanza, Blake asks another question pertaining again to Who could make a frightening
creature? Blake uses imagery to show how the heart of this Beast begins to beat and then
once God had make the heart beat, he says what dread hand? and what dread feet? This
shows how God again asks himself if he dreaded creating such a magnificent creature that is
capable of both good and evil (So\\zurce).

The fourth stanza in Blakess poem begins with an awesome allusion, referring to the Greek
God Haphaestus. Hephaestus is the blacksmith God of fire and metallurgy who was plagued
with a lame leg and toiled under the volcano, Mount Aetna, creating weapons,armor,and artwork
for other Gods who distained him for his ugliness(source). What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain? From the words Blake presents and image of a God like
Hephaestus, in a dark, hell-like place,just hammering away to create this beast. By saying In
what furnace was thy brain? Blake is implying the tyger to be made of hard, metalic Stuff. In
the next line, he uses What the anvil? to again, paint the picture of a God like Hephaestus
hammering away on an anvil to create the tyger out of metalic substances. To close the stanza,
Blake uses alot of dark, ominous words. what dreap grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp? The
words dread, dare, deadly, and terrors are worlds that describe something evil. Blake chooses
to uses these words to paint an image of the tyger being an evil creature, which begins to lean
us away from the assumption that the tyger was created by the God in heaven, and therefore
capable of good as well as evil. The tyger and its deadly, terrors clasp is more imagery to
remind us that the tyger is dark, mysterious, and horrifying (source).
Blake starts his fifth quatrain with powerful imagery as well as an allusion. When the stars
threw down their spears, And waterd heaven with their tears, the imagery in these two lines
clearly forms some kind of picture. Blake however had some hidden symbolism in the words in
these lines. It is an old tale that the twinkling of stars are the Angels in the heavens. Looking
closely, it can be suggested that the word Stars means Angels. So the Angels are throwing
down their spears. Why else whould they do that except for during the War of Angels? There
was a time that Lucifer became enraged and rebelled against God and his Angels. Lucifer then
went up into the heavens and battled with God and his Angels. When it says Stars threw down
their spears, it is talking about when Gods Angels defeated Lucifers Angels by using spears
(Source). The next part of these lines And waterd heaven with their tears. is also speaking
about the Holy War of the Angels. The Angels of God are watering the heavens with their tears
because they feel compassion to thier Angel brother who follow Lucifer (source). The Next two
lines of the poem are again a few rhetorical questions, however this time, they begin to suggest
something different. So far, most of the questions have led us to believe that the tyger is evil, so
its creator would inherently be Lucifer. This time, the questions point to the conclusion that it
was infact God who made the tyger (mankind). But, was God happy with the results of his
creaton of mankind (the tyger)? Did he smile his work to see? (Line 19). This line is the
support for the question, was God happy with what he created? Did he actually smile to see
what the Tyger has/can do with its free will? Line 20 reads: Did he who made the Lamb make
thee? This is where the table turns towards God as the creator of the tyger, not Lucifer. In
Blakes other poem The Lamb, the lamb is a symbol of perfection and innocence. It is a
creation so pure, unable of doing wrong. Being that the tyger is not perfect, and pure, it is hard
to believe that the same God cerated both these creatures. However, Blake has intended the
rhetorical question in line 20 to show us that they were infact made by the same creator, and
that creator is the God in heaven (source).

The sixth and final quatrain of the poem is a recap of the first quatrain. He uses repition to bring
back the Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, in the forests of the night, what immoral hand or eye.
Those three lines are identical to the first three lines of hte poem. The Tyger links to mankind,
the burning bright refers to the flourishing and furiousity of the tyger(mankind). The line in the
forest of the night again is used as imagery to get the readure to picture a dark, mysterious
environment, implying that the tyger is a creatyre of the night. Lastly, the immortal hand or eye is
a symbol of a higher power. What God is the one who created the tyger(mankind), a creature
that is both terrifying and beautiful at the same time. There is one difference that Blake made in
his final stanza from the first one. This difference comes in the last line of the poem, line 24. In
the first stanza, Blake asked Could frame thy fearful symmetry? Meaning, is God actually
capable of creating a creature so terrifying yet beautiful. In line 24 of the poem, Blake changes
his question to ask DARE frame thy fearful symmetry? Now, the question is not if God is
powerful enough to create a creature like the tyger, but what God would even dare to create a
creature so terrifying. Would he dare create the tyger(manking) with free will, knowning that free
will may lead them astray from worshiping the lord. There is one central point that Blake wanted
to get through to us. In his poems, The Lamb and The Tyger, it was God who created both
the Tyger and the Lamb. Although they are different and the tyger is said to posess traits of evil,
God knew what he was doing, and he made the tyger (mankind) to be free, so that we could live
happily.

The stage of the Hero Journey that is most represented in the poem The Tyger is the birth.
The Birth is about the becoming of existence for a hero. In the poem, the tyger is our hero, and
he is being born into the world via creation of God. The birth is when a hero first begins to
realize his or her true identity by tests and natural experiences. The tyger is being born in the
poem, and Blake is attempting to show us what his identity is. Birth is the begining of a heros
life, and at first, they have the choice of wether they want to be good or evil. They are capable of
both at birth, just as the tyger is capable of doing good and evil.

Type of Work and Year of Publication

"The Tiger," originally called "The Tyger," is a lyric poem focusing on the nature of God and his creations.
It was published in 1794 in a collection entitled Songs of Experience. Modern anthologies often print "The
Tiger" alongside an earlier Blake poem, "The Lamb," published in 1789 in a collection entitled Songs of
Innocence.

Meter
The poem is in trochaic tetrameter with catalexis at the end of each line. Here is an explanation of these
technical terms:

Tetrameter Line: a poetry line usually with eight syllables.

Trochaic Foot: A pair of syllables--a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.
Catalexis: The absence of a syllable in the final foot in a line. In Blakes poem, an unstressed
syllable is absent in the last foot of each line. Thus, every line has seven syllables, not the
conventional eight.
The following illustration using the first two lines of the poem demonstrates tetrameter with four trochaic
feet, the last one catalectic:
 .....1...........2...............3..................4
TIger,..|..TIger,..|..BURN ing..|..BRIGHT
.....1..............2...............3...............4
IN the..|..FOR ests..|..OF the..|..NIGHT
Notice that the fourth foot in each line eliminates the conventional unstressed syllable (catalexis).
However, this irregularity in the trochaic pattern does not harm the rhythm of the poem. In fact, it may
actually enhance it, allowing each line to end with an accented syllable that seems to mimic the beat of
the makers hammer on the anvil.
.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

The poem consists of six quatrains. (A quatrain is a four-line stanza.) Each quatrain contains two
couplets. (A couplet is a pair of rhyming lines). Thus we have a twenty-four-line poem with twelve couplets
and six stanzasa neat, balanced package. The question in the final stanza repeats (except for one
word, dare) the wording of the first stanza, perhaps suggesting that the question Blake raises will continue
to perplex thinkers ad infinitum.

Examples Figures of Speech and Allusions

Alliteration: Tiger, tiger, burning bright (line 1); frame thy fearful symmetry? (line 4)
Metaphor: Comparison of the tiger and his eyes to fire.
Anaphora: Repetition of what at the beginning of sentences or clauses. Example: What dread hand and
what dread feet? / What the hammer? what the chain?
Allusion: Immortal hand or eye: God or Satan
Allusion: Distant deeps or skies: hell or heaven

Symbols

The Tiger: Evil (or Satan)

The Lamb: Goodness (or God)
Distant Deeps: Hell
Skies: Heaven

Analysis
William Blake (1757 1827) was born in London, England. He displayed a lot of creativity at a very
young age. Unfortunately, he didnt have enough funding to get institutionalized education beyond a
drawing school. Therefore, he went took an apprenticeship at the age of fourteen under a London
engraver as engraving was a necessary industry in the 18th century, as much of the book printing
and illustration at the time was in high demand. (D. Wu) Blakes lifelong profession as an engraver
played a crucial role in how his poetry was published; indeed the two most significant aspects that
lead to his most famous works, such as The Tyger, were his theological views of the Protestant
Church and the preferred medium for his poetry: engraving. He read passionately and was a classic
example of uninstitutionalized self-tutelage, but perhaps his greatest strength as a Romantic poet
was his unique and original interpretation of the King James Bible and his undeniable talent in art.
(Friedlander R.)

The Tyger by William Blake is a popular example of his artistic unions between theologically critical
Romantic poetry and the prints that he used as a medium for expressing them. William Blake shows
us his fear when he sees this terrible tiger in the night and he exaggerates the description of the
animal by saying, Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright, In the forests of the night The poem contains six
quatrains; and its rhyme is assonant, and follows perfectly the pattern aabb due to, in the case of the
first and the sixth stanzas, the word symmetry is pronounced in such a way that it rhymes with eye.
Because of the simple structure and vocabulary, the reader is able understand the main topics and
concepts, which are Evil and Good. These two essential ideas are symbolised in the Tyger.
(Friedlander R.)

The word immortal gives the reader a hint that the poet refers to God. Then, the author wonders in
what outlying places the tyger was made, meaning that these places cannot be reached by any
human. Once the tigers heart began to beat yet again the poet asks, who could make such a
frightening and evil animal. William Blake asks questions about the tools used by God. And he
names the hammer, the chain, the furnace, and anvil. All these elements are used by an ironsmith.
Therefore, according to the poet, God is a kind of craftsman. We can also find a semantic field
related to Nature like, for example, forests, skies, Tyger, and Lamb. Nevertheless, the poet used
a semantic field related to the creation of the Tyger. Following that, In the fifth stanza, the poet asks
two significant questions. The first one refers to Gods feelings, Did he smile his work to see?
Which means, was God happy with his creation? And in the second question he asks, Did he who
made the Lamb make thee?

The setting of "The Tiger" or the worlds this poem seems to conjure up are extremely diverse. In
general, though it takes place in the abstract, without much more than "Forests of the night," and
"distant deeps or skies," to give the reader any sense of location. The body parts referenced in this
poem are hands, eyes, shoulders, and feet, which are examples of synecdoche. Therefore, the
phrase "immortal hand" refers the whole being or person that the hand belongs to, while at the same
time focusing on the hands as the means of creation. The eye represents the whole body and
person, but also focuses our attention on the faculty of sight. (The Tyger)

The Tiger presents a question that embodies the central theme: Who created the tiger? Was it the
kind and loving God who made the lamb? Or was it Satan? Blake presents his question by saying,
What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? Blake realizes that God made all
the creatures on earth. However, to express his bewilderment that the God who created the gentle
lamb also created the terrifying tiger, he includes Satan as a possible creator while raising his
rhetorical questions.

Deeps appears to refer to hell and skies to heaven. In either case, there would be fire, the fire of hell
or the fire of the stars. Of course, there can be no contradicting that the tiger symbolizes evil, or the
personification of evil, and that the lamb represents goodness, or Christ. Blake's inquiry is a variation
on an old philosophical and theological question: Why does evil exist in a universe created and ruled
by a kind God? Blake provides no answer. His mission is to reflect reality in arresting images. A
poets first purpose, after all, is to present the world and its denizens in language that stimulates the
aesthetic sense; he is not to exhort or moralize. Nevertheless, the poem does stir the reader to deep
thought. Here is the tiger, fierce and brutal in its quest for sustenance; there is the lamb, meek and
gentle in its quest for survival. Is it possible that the same God who made the lamb also made the
tiger? Or was the tiger the devil's work?

The poem is more about the creator of the tiger than it is about the tiger intself. In contemplating the
terrible ferocity and awesome symmetry of the tiger, the speaker is at a loss to explain how the same
God who made the lamb could make the tiger. Hence, this theme: humans are incapable of fully
understanding the mind of God and the mystery of his handiwork.

The fire serves multiple purposes as an extended metaphor. First, its associated with the Tyger,
which contributes to its ferocity and sublimity (the fact its big, powerful, and mysterious). Fire is also
a source of energy, and since the Tyger seems to be filled with fire, then he must also be filled with
energy. In another sense, the fire of the smiths furnace is the fire of creation, the means by which
the Tyger was formed. The whole poem is addressed to the Tyger. Can the Tyger talk? No. Does it
even exist in a concrete sense? Probably not. The apostrophe helps the poet keep the subject alive
and in-your-face, rather than talking about a bunch of generalities.

William Blake wonders why and how god is responsible for good and innocence is at the same time,
the one who inserts violence and evil in this world. However, the poet does not make any statement.
He only asks questions which encourages the reader to think about the answers to all his questions.
Finally, the last stanza is the same as the first one. This indicates that author is not able to
understand the world where we live.

Critic
In my opinion, I think that the tiger is man, God's shining creature, burning bright compared to his
other creations. He describes some of man's characteristics given by God. He says that a man is
fierce, bold and ambitious, somewhat evoking an image of science and man's desire for power over
the earth and yet he is cultured and civilized, even introspective. These features are hard to
understand in its complexity. But then, these traits of man turned into something else.

Man, like hardworking little ants to God began to use the mind he had been given to change the
earth. He turned his tools to darker purposes, becoming industrial and materialistic. They forgot
about the beauty of nature, the freedom of the tiger he once was. Blake wonders if nature teared at
this loss and if God smiled when he saw how the beauty and power of the creature he had created
had turned astray. Did the creator of the innocent lamb really also make the men on earth in their
sterile society of cheap pleasure and convenience? Now Blake wonders, not only who could define
man, but who would dare?

Conclusion
In the poem The Tyger William Blake is stating that God should readily punish the creatures he
brings into existence. God created the Lamb, but he also created the Tyger, and is so directly
responsible for the misery of that same lamb, the Tyger that would prey upon it. God created Satan,
and in doing so also readily damned him to Hell for acts that, in his power, God was very much in
control of and could have prevented.

William Blakes The Tyger is such a fascinating theological critique, because it has forging in the
depths of hell a monster to be unleashed upon mankind, not the Devil, but the Protestant God
himself, the creator of the Tyger as well as the Lamb.