The Tyger

• • “The Tyger” - parallel to poem “the Lamb” = a symbol of innocent mankind but The Tyger is not a symbol of innocence - another side to mankind (capabilities of great evil or just the animal)
  • focus on God - what kind of God would have created the Tyger
• • “Tyge, Tyger burning bright, in the forests of the night: what immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry“
  • 1st stanza - reads like a nursery Rhyme especially the use of alliteration - “Tyger tygrr burning bright”
  • fiery imagery = danger/inciting fear but beauty
  • plosives
  • “night“ - imagery= mysterious environment
  • ”immortal” - allusion to the divine - focus on God
  • “fearful symmetry“ - juxtaposition- fearful = danger but symmetry = in awe of the skilled Creator/beauty
• • “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?
  • allusion to heaven and hell
  • images of fire - image of tiger being created out of fire = mirrors the flame-like image of the tiger & creates an image of a daring God who plays with fire
  • list of questions = intrigue
• • ”what are could twist the sinews of thy heart“ - corruption of good = twisted intentions but could just be about creation of mankind
  • ”what dread hand?& what dread feet?” - continuation of questions - focus on God molding the tiger
  • repetition of ”dread” - did God regret what He created
• • “What the hammer? what the chain, in what furnace was thy brain? what was the anvil?what dread grasp dare its deadly terrors clasp!
  • metaphor: God= blacksmith - ability to create things capable of evil
  • alliteration = horror or did he know exactly what he made
• • “When the stars threw down their spears and water’d heaven with their tear: Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”
  • ”stars” - metaphors of angels - bright
  • personification - protesting
  • “Lamb” - explores the duality of the Christian God = punitive and forgiving - what type of God capable of making a meek animal such as the lamb chooses to create an animal as ferocious the tiger?
  • metaphor to Jesus - did He who made someone as wonderful as Christ also made humankind - so flawed in comparison
• • “Tyger, tyger burning bright, in the forests of the night: what immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”
  • repetition of 1st stanza = frames the poem = questions will never be answered - celebrating complexity or frustration
  • A God that takes risks and “plays with fire” - did God take a risk in creating mankind with free will
• • form and structure:
  • 6 quatrains in rhyming couplets
  • trochaic tetrameter (stressed/unstressed) - nursery rhyme? blacksmith hammering away?
  • series of rhetorical questions = unanswered questions = complexity of nature/God