William Blake - The Tyger

Now, you know that I’m not a poetry lover. At all. If poems were actual, living beings, they would probably run for the hills, screaming their heads off, as soon as they saw me. (Although I have, in recent years, at least managed to make the progression from poetry hater to being indifferent to it.)

 

However … there is this one poem, which sort of breaks the rules in that I really like it: it’s “The Tyger” by William Blake.

The Tyger

Tyger Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

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!

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?

I know, I know – I’m beyond shocked, too. I can’t even really explain why I like it – it’s just so catchy. “Tyger Tyger, burning bright / In the forests of the night” … I can just instantly remember it (except for the “forests” – I keep thinking “darkness”)!

I also like that the next two lines of the first stanza don’t rhyme: it produces such an interesting contrast to use the word “symmetry” in the only two lines of the poem that are not, in fact, symmetrical, seeing as they don’t rhyme!

And then there’s the very, very vivid imagery of the rest of the poem that I love: “In what distant deeps or skies / Burnt the fire of thine eyes” and “When the stars threw down their spears / And water’d heaven with their tears”.

… Gah, I just love this poem! So, of course I had to find out a bit more about it :P! Here’s some interesting stuff that I found trawling the internet.

Analysis

First of all, the poem seems to be largely about the seeming conflict between the idea of a benevolent God and the reality of a quite a cruel world, filled with creatures of death such as the tiger. On the one hand, the poem seems to convey a sense of wonder at the beauty of the tiger (and creation), on the other there is a certain sense of awe and even fear of it.

Fire plays an important role in the poem: it’s in the tiger’s fur (“burning bright”), its eyes (“burnt the fire of thine eyes”) and even its brain (“in what furnace was thy brain”). Apparently, this is because fire stands for both power, destruction, but also sacredness – which means that the word in itself encapsulates the poem’s fundamental conflict (benevolent God vs sadist).

The “fearful symmetry” could be the tiger’s fur: it’s symmetrical due to its stripes! And “frame” could mean “to contain”. (à So, I suppose, what the speaker is really asking is: “Who put the tiger in the tiger?” :P)

Apparently, the spelling of tiger as “tyger” was extraordinary even in William Blake’s time, so this may be a further tipping off on the speaker’s part that he regards the tiger (at least in this poem) as really something very mysterious and otherworldly.

There is an added element of mystery in the repetition of the word “tyger": it’s like an enchantment or a spell. (I certainly feel a little bit bewitched ;)!)

Finally, an interesting switch from “could” to “dare” occurs in the last stanza. It’s mostly a repeat of the first one, except for this one little word. What’s interesting about this is that while in the first stanza the speaker seems to be questioning the sheer ability of creating something as fearful as a tiger (“What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry”), in the last one he seems to be more concerned with the courage (and perhaps silliness) of the action (“What immortal hand or eye, / Dare frame thy fearful symmetry”). It’s a more moral question, if you will.

Had enough of the analysis yet ;)?

Illustrations

Let’s move on to the really fun stuff then! First, the poem was actually illustrated (I think by Blake himself, but I’m not a hundred per cent sure …). Here are some of the illustrations I found and liked:

 

Readings

You can listen to a rather beautiful and eerie (which I find quite fitting!) reading by Tom O’Bedlam here:

I really like this! It gives me the shivers!

Adaptations

And finally, someone called Gorden J. L. Ramel wrote a very powerful updated version of the poem about the fate of the tiger today:

Tiger Tiger Revisited

Tiger tiger fading fast

in the shadow we have cast,

what brave law or business deal

can thy future's safety seal.

What the future, what the hope
that humankind may learn to cope
with life and maintenance of breath
without this need of needless death.

In what sulphurous cauldron groans
the mind that lives to sell your bones;
and what the moral poverty
of those take thy life from thee?

What the learning, what the thought
that values lives like yours at naught?
What the science or machine
where beauty such as yours is seen?

Who did he hate who sowed the seed
of human ignorance and greed;
and can he smile our work to see
as we who killed the lamb kill thee.

Tiger tiger fading fast
from the present to the past,
how can mere humanity
so quickly still thy majesty?

Both sad and wow, right?

Anyway, so what do you think?

Sources

The Tyger (William Blake): http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172943

Tiger Tiger Revisited (Gorden J.L. Ramel): http://www.ecology.info/tiger-tiger.htm

“How William Blake keeps our eye on The Tyger” (Jonathan Jones, The Guardian): http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/nov/18/william-blake-the-tyger-art-poem-tigers

The Tyger – Analysis (Shmoop): http://www.shmoop.com/tyger/

The Tyger – Analysis (Sparknotes): http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/blake/section6.rhtml

William Blake Archive (Images): http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/work.xq?workid=songsie&java=no