Written 2\/12\/18<\/p>\n
One of the most famous poems in English history, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d by William Blake is often mandatory reading for elementary and middle schoolers throughout the United States. However, despite its short length, Blake filled the poem with details and meanings that I could not have comprehended back in my childhood. I aim to pick out a few of Blake\u2019s artistic choices in this piece that stand out to me and explain their significance.<\/p>\n
First is Blake\u2019s choice to use the spelling of \u201ctyger.\u201d Though at the time, \u201ctyger\u201d was an older, but acceptable way to spell tiger, Blake does use \u201ctiger\u201d in several of his other works. This begs the question of why he opted for the archaic form for this poem. \u201cThe Tyger\u201d is the parallel piece to \u201cThe Lamb,\u201d wondering whether the same benevolent God that created the gentle lamb could simiarily create the fearsome tiger. This concept of duality is further explored throughout the rest of the poem and cements that one cannot analyze \u201cThe Tyger\u201d without also considering \u201cThe Lamb.\u201d In order to heighten the contrast with the familiar lamb, Blake may have decided to spell tiger with a \u201cy\u201d to arouse an image of exotic danger and departure from common norms.<\/p>\n
Another reason Blake may have chosen to use \u201ctyger\u201d is to emphasize that he is not just talking about the animal. Blake used this poem to reflect upon his experiences as a native Londoner, greatly affected by the processes of industrialization and the French Revolution that occurred most likely between the writing of \u201cThe Lamb\u201d and \u201cThe Tyger.\u201d It is clear that these influences have seeped into \u201cThe Tyger.\u201d In \u201cThe Lamb,\u201d the lamb is capitalized and equated to humanity, God, and Jesus. In \u201cThe Tyger,\u201d \u201ctyger\u201d is also capitalized whenever it appears. What does the \u201ctyger\u201d represent? The lamb is associated with life, streams, vales, purity, and \u201csoftest clothing, wooly, bright\u201d (Blake, \u201cThe Lamb\u201d 6). The tiger, on the other hand, is associated with \u201cforests of the night\u201d (Blake, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d 2), fire, hammers, anvils, and spears.<\/p>\n
Despite these conflicting images, the tiger still represents humans and God, but no longer are as the innocent children in need of care and the benevolent shepherd. The tiger is a sublime beast, massive, mysterious, deserving of awe, and terrifying, just like God. But just as Blake connects the tiger to God, he also questions God\u2019s omnipotence in his flanking stanzas, \u201cWhat immortal hand or eye \/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?\u201d (Blake, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d 3-4). He grows even more challenging in his final line, replacing \u201ccould\u201d with \u201cdare\u201d (Blake, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d 24). Blake asks whether God is worthy of our respect, allowing such strife to exist in our world. He questions, \u201cDid he smile his work to see? \/ Did he who made the Lamb make thee?\u201d (Blake, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d 19-20).<\/p>\n
This brings the second representation of the tiger \u2013 as humanity and the cities we have constructed. With industrialization ramping, people were able to reach new advancements in technology, and science was glorified at the sake of religious faith. We too are massive and terrifying, and we are the ones who made the \u201ctyger,\u201d the fearsome creature forged in the furnace using hammers, anvils, and chains.<\/p>\n
Combined with the line \u201cWhat the hand, dare seize the fire? (Blake, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d 8)\u201d calls to mind the story of Prometheus, the Titan in Greek mythology that granted humankind the gift of fire and metalwork and then was punished eternally for the transgression. The line right before, \u201cOn what wings dare he aspire?\u201d (Blake, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d 7) alludes to yet another Greek myth, of Icarus using manmade wings to fly, ultimately falling to his death after flying too close to the sun. Is Blake suggesting we are rebelling against God, but that we must be careful, lest we are burned by our own creations? Or perhaps he applauds our confrontation, as one proverb he wrote in the \u201cProverbs of Hell\u201d states, \u201cNo bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings\u201d (Blake 16).<\/p>\n
Blake was a revolutionary whose aim was to overturn what was normal. This poem achieves that goal. In only six quatrains that remind of a nursery rhyme, Blake packs layers of subtext revealing a world much different from the simple one in \u201cThe Lamb.\u201d His dualities range from mere superficiality to reflections of the world. By using the word \u201csymmetry\u201d (Blake, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d 4) and starting and ending with nearly identical stanzas, his poetic decisions shape the mirroring of the tiger and the lamb, of nature and industry, and of God and humanity. This all culminates in the message that the society we live in is complex, enigmatic, and advancing rapidly. Looking at the experiences of everyone around us, we cannot blindly believe in a higher power that may not look out for us, or even exist. Blake\u2019s \u201cThe Tyger\u201d is a work worthy of praise, woven with intricacies and ambiguities that allow us, the reader, to exercise our own imaginations and take control of our destinies, just like his \u201cTyger! Tyger! burning bright \/ In the forests of the night\u201d (Blake, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d 1-2).<\/p>\n
Works Cited<\/p>\n
Blake, William. \u201cProverbs of Hell.\u201d English Romantic Poetry: an Anthology<\/em>, edited by Stanley Appelbaum, Dover, 1996, pp. 18\u201320.<\/p>\n Blake, William. \u201cThe Lamb.\u201d English Romantic Poetry: an Anthology<\/em>, edited by Stanley Appelbaum, Dover, 1996, p. 4.<\/p>\n Blake, William. \u201cThe Tyger.\u201d English Romantic Poetry: an Anthology<\/em>, edited by Stanley Appelbaum, Dover, 1996, p. 7.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written 2\/12\/18 One of the most famous poems in English history, \u201cThe Tyger\u201d by William Blake is often mandatory reading for elementary and middle schoolers throughout the United States. However, despite its short length, Blake filled the poem with details and meanings that I could not have comprehended back in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chelseali.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}