The Tyger (The Tiger): Blake

The Tyger (The Tiger)

The poem ‘The Tyger, is taken from Blake’s songs of Experience which appeared in 1794.
Text:
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?

And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and 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 water’d heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make three

Tyger ! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Substance:
The poet attempts to augment the reader’s sense of wonder progressively by asking a series of rhetorical questions on the extraordinary powers required for creating an animal like the tiger. In the forests at night the eyes of the tiger burn brightly like balls of fire. The poet wonders to know who framed the fearful symmetry. The creator of the tiger must have the same qualities to be able to produce such a creature. The fire of the eyes has been brought from volcanic deeps or skies. The creator must have great physical labor and much time in making the heart of the tiger.When the tiger became a living reality, his paws and legs appeared dreadful. The creator of the tiger must have used the huge hammer, anvil and chain in forming its symmetry. The angles were so amazed to see the creation of the tiger that they threw down their spears and wept. The poet wonders
God who created a meek and mild creature like the lamb dared to create the ferocious tiger.