3. 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 seize the fire?
4. 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!
5. When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd 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?
6.
7. The poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome
tiger what kind of divine being could have created it:
“What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful
symmetry?” Each subsequent stanza contains further
questions, all of which refine this first one. From what
part of the cosmos could the tiger’s fiery eyes have
come, and who would have dared to handle that fire?
What sort of physical presence, and what kind of dark
craftsmanship, would have been required to “twist the
sinews” of the tiger’s heart? The speaker wonders how,
once that horrible heart “began to beat,” its creator
would have had the courage to continue the job.
Comparing the creator to a blacksmith, he ponders
about the anvil and the furnace that the project would
have required and the smith who could have wielded
them. And when the job was done, the speaker
wonders, how would the creator have felt? “Did he
smile his work to see?” Could this possibly be the
same being who made the lamb?
8.
9. The poem is comprised of six quatrains in rhymed
couplets. The meter is regular and rhythmic, its
hammering beat suggestive of the smithy that is the
poem’s central image. The simplicity and neat
proportions of the poems form perfectly suit its regular
structure, in which a string of questions all contribute
to the articulation of a single, central idea.
10.
11. 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?
12. 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, Blake’s tiger
becomes the symbolic center for an investigation into
the presence of evil in the world. Since the tiger’s
remarkable nature exists both in physical and moral
terms, the speaker’s questions about its origin must
also encompass both physical and moral dimensions.
The poem’s 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.
13. 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.
14. 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 God’s
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 child’s innocent faith in a benevolent
universe.
15. The Tyger’ was first published in William Blake’s 1794
volume Songs of Experience, which contains many of
his most celebrated poems. The Songs of Experience
was designed to complement Blake’s earlier collection,
Songs of Innocence (1789), and ‘The Tyger’ should be
seen as the later volume’s answer to ‘The Lamb’, the
‘innocent’ poem that had appeared in the earlier
volume.
Framed as a series of questions, ‘Tyger Tyger, burning
bright’ (as the poem is also often known), in summary,
sees Blake’s speaker wondering about the creator
responsible for such a fearsome creature as the tiger.
The fiery imagery used throughout the poem conjures
the tiger’s aura of danger: fire equates to fear. Don’t get
too close to the tiger, Blake’s poem seems to say,
otherwise you’ll get burnt.
16. The first stanza and sixth stanza, alike in every respect
except for the shift from ‘Could frame’ to ‘Dare frame’,
frame the poem, asking about the immortal creator
responsible for the beast. The second stanza continues
the fire imagery established by the image of the tiger
‘burning bright’, with talk of ‘the fire’ of the creature’s
eyes, and the notion of the creator fashioning the tiger
out of pure fire, as if he (or He) had reached his hand
into the fire and moulded the creature from it. (The
image succeeds, of course, because of the flame-like
appearance of a tiger’s stripes.) It must have been a god
who played with fire who made the tiger.
17. In the third and fourth stanzas, Blake introduces
another central metaphor, explicitly drawing a
comparison between God and a blacksmith. It is as if
the Creator made the blacksmith in his forge,
hammering the base materials into the living and
breathing ferocious creature which now walks the
earth.
The fifth stanza is more puzzling, but ‘stars’ have long
been associated with human destiny (as the root of
‘astrology’ highlights). For Kathleen Raine, this stanza
can be linked with another of William Blake’s works,
The Four Zoas, where the phrase which we also find in
‘The Tyger’, ‘the stars threw down their spears’, also
appears. There it is the godlike creator of the universe
(Urizen in Blake’s mythology) who utters it; Urizen’s
fall, and the fall of the stars and planets, are what
brought about the creation of life on Earth in Blake’s
Creation story. When the Creator fashioned the Tyger,
Blake asks, did he look with pride upon the animal he
had created?
18. How might we analyse ‘The Tyger’? What does it mean?
The broader point is one that many Christian believers
have had to grapple with: if God is all-loving, why did
he make such a fearsome and dangerous animal? We
can’t easily fit the tiger into the ‘All Things Bright and
Beautiful’ view of Christian creation. As Blake himself
asks, ‘Did he who made the Lamb make thee?’ In other
words, did God make the gentle and meek animals, but
also the destructive and ferocious ones? Presumably the
question is rhetorical; the real question-behind-the-
question is why. (This might help to explain Blake’s
reference to ‘fearful symmetry’: he is describing not
only the remarkable patterns on the tiger’s skin and fur
which humans have learned to go in fear of, but the
‘symmetry’ between the innocent lamb on the one hand
and the fearsome tiger on the other. (‘Fearful’ means
‘fearsome’ here, confusingly.)
19. Indeed, we might take such an analysis further and see
the duality between the lamb and the tiger as being
specifically about the two versions of God in
Christianity: the vengeful and punitive Old Testament
God, Yahweh, and the meek and forgiving God
presented in the New Testament. What bolsters such
an interpretation is the long-established associations
between the lamb and Jesus Christ. The tiger, whilst
not a biblical animal, embodies the violent retribution
and awesome might of Yahweh in the Old Testament.
But none of these readings quite settles down into
incontrovertible fact. ‘The Tyger’ remains, like the
creature itself, an enigma, a fearsome and elusive beast
20.
21. Stanza 1
Blake begins by asking the tiger what kind of divine
being could have created it. It is beautiful, perfect and,
at the same time, fearful. He believes that nature, like
art, must in some way contain a reflection of its creator.
“burning bright” – fire is a constant theme in the poem.
There is fire and there is darkness “the night”, perhaps
both suggestive of hell. He cannot believe that someone
could have created a creature at once beautiful, terrible
and frightening.
Line 1 – The tiger’s immense power and strength.
Line 2 – Creating a sense of fear and mystery.
Line 3 – The hand or eye belong to God since He is the
only thing that is immortal.
Line 4 – Perfect shape.
22. Stanza 2
(First two lines)
From what part of the Universe could the tiger’s fiery eyes
have come?
(Second two lines)
The poem addresses the moral question of: who could make
such a creature? God is courageous for having created the
tiger. He is not just a capable Creator, but also a brave one.
Note the repetition of “dare” and the use of the strong verb
“seize”. What two contrasting elements was God trying to
achieve when he dared create the beautiful yet deadly tiger?
Evil and beauty side by side.
Line 5 – It is probably referring to hell (“deeps”) and to heaven
(“skies”).
Line 6 – That created the great strength in your eyes.
Line 7 – From where did he get the idea?
Line 8 – Whose hand dare shape you from fire?
23. Stanza 3
What sort of strength would have been needed to “twist
the sinews” of the Tiger’s heart? The poet wanders how
once that “heart began to beat”, its creator had the
courage to continue. These lines speak of the very
power and strength of its maker.
Sinews are tendons that make the heart work and they
are also known as a source of strength and power.
The heart represents not only the biological engine of
the tiger, but perhaps also its passion for living.
24. (Last two lines)
Can God have created a dreadful creature? And if so,
does this task make God’s hands dreadful? God created
the tiger. He is the artist. The work of an artist
reflects the artist himself. So what does the creation of
such a creature say about the artist’s hands?
Line 9 – What artistic capabilities.
Line 10 – Could create and build you.
Line 11 – When you were given life.
Line 12 – Is this a reference to the tiger’s powerful
hands or is the poet in awe at God’s brave action of
creating this beautiful yet terrible creature?
25. Stanza 4
Here the metaphor of creation (the creation of the tiger
represents the creation of all that is at once beautiful
and fearful and perhaps evil) continues with the image
of the blacksmith. The poet thinks of the “anvil” and
the “furnace” that creation would have needed.
Here in this stanza the imagery is more infernal than
heavenly – “hammers”, “chains” and “furnaces”. The
very thinking of the fiery tiger began in a furnace. The
creation metaphor reflects the physical strength and
courage of the blacksmith.
26. Again the word “dare” reappears. God must be not only
capable, but also courageous to have created the tiger.
How did he manage to control it as He created it? Note
that Blake never suggests that the tiger should never
have been created.
Line 13 – It seems that the creator is being compared to
a blacksmith (“hammer”; “chain”).
Line 14 – Huge strong fire burning at very high
temperatures (“furnace”).
Line 15 – Creator being compared to a blacksmith
(“anvil”).
Lines 13-16 – This whole stanza is a metaphor.
27. Stanza 5
When God’s work on creation was ended, did He smile
down upon it? Is it possible that He who created the
docile lamb, created you as well? Did the same God
who made the lamb also make the tiger? If it is true, it
suggests that God knows something that we human
beings do not know. It suggests that God has the
capacity for tenderness and dread, and that we can
never understand why it was necessary for him to
create both good and evil.
Lines 17-18 – If this God can create such different
creatures which contrast each other, this God must be
so powerful.
Line 19 – Was he pleased with you?
Line 20 – Is it possible that who created the lamb
created you as well?
28. Stanza 6
Blake uses repetition to reinforce his ideas. If the tiger
is not only burning, but burning brightly, is it not a
creature of light? Maybe, therefore, our fear of it is
rather short-sighted because although strong and
fearful, it is beautiful. It is significant that Blake uses
once again the word “dare” in the last line because it
emphasizes the concept of courage in relation to
creation.
(Last line)
There is the comparison of the tiger and the lamb – the
beast with the tamed one – and consider the proper
balance of nature as God has created it.
29. This poem involves the acknowledgement of what is
unexplainable in the universe, presenting evil as
something that cannot be denied. It is easy to imagine
that Blake was thinking of the problem of evil and the
clear contradiction of a God who can create both beauty
and horror in one creature.
Line 21 – The poet now looks at the tiger surprisingly,
but is now inspired by admiration.
Line 24 – Did he have the guts and the courage to make
you?
30.
31. The fifth stanza is particularly important because here
Blake dares to question God’s creation. If we note the
following two verses:
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heave with their tears,
we notice a sense of irony. Although Blake is describing
the process of creation, he is using destructive and
mournful images. He then wonders whether the
creator of the fierce and predatory tiger could also have
made the docile, gentle lamb. He understandably sees
a conflict between the two creatures – the hunting
machine and its helpless prey – and therefore raises
the question Did he smile his work to see?
32.
33. The poem consists of six quatrains (a stanza with four
lines). Each quatrain contains two rhyming couplets (a
pair of rhyming lines). Hence, Blake presents us with a
relatively simple and straight-forward structure in
order to allow the reader to focus on the message more
exclusively (COMPLETELY). There is a regular
rhythm which suggests the hammering of the smithy as
he works away at his creation.
34.
35. Alliteration – Tiger, Tiger, burning bright
Frame they fearful symmetry?
Metaphor – Comparison of the tiger’s eyes to fire
Anaphora – repetition of the word what at the
beginning of sentences. Example-
What dread hand and what dread feet? Or What the
hammer? What the chain?
Irony - a figure of speech in which words are used in
such a way that their intended meaning is different
from the actual meaning of the words. It may also be a
situation that ends up in quite a different way than
what is generally anticipated.
36.
37. ‘The Tiger’ (originally written as ‘The Tyger’)
belongs to a collection of poems called
Songs of Experience written by William
Blake. Blake belonged to a group of poets
known as the Romantics; they believed that
they could write poetry that conveyed
(COMMUNICATED) profound messages
without using bombastic words. Blake’s
poems were also accompanied by colourful
illustrations in ‘relief etching’.
39. The main themes to be put forth and
contrasted in this poem are Evil, Good,
and God. At first, the tiger is presented to
us as a fearsome creature in the night and
the poet seems to be overwhelmed by its
presence. In fact, he exaggerates the
description – Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright /
In the forests of the night. The poet then
wonders what deity (GOD) could have
created such a fearful creature. The word
immortal (SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT
DIE) gives the reader a clue that the poet
is referring to God.
40. Blake is perfectly aware that the same God made all
the creatures on earth, however he is bewildered at
the idea that the same God could have created both
the gentle lamb and the ferocious tiger. This is why
he introduces Satan as a possible creator when he
asks in Lines 5 and 6:
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
41. The words deeps and skies are clear references
to hell and heaven respectively.
In the third stanza, Blake asks the tiger once
again about its creator; he wonders what shoulder
(what strength) and what art (what craftsmanship)
could have devised such a killing machine. The
phrase twist the sinews of thy heart is also a direct
allusion (REFERENCE) to a hardheartedness that
a beast of prey (like a tiger) must have towards its
victims.
42. Stanza four is then riddled with
words – such as, hammer,
chain, furnace, and anvil – that
are evocative (SUGGESTIVE) of
an ironsmith. Hence, Blake
seems to imagine God as
working on his creations
individually and meticulously
(CAREFULLY) like a true
craftsman would do.
