Wednesday, May 4, 2011

A VERY DIFFERENT TIGER in the poetic tradition

         The Tygre
               William Blake 1794
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                         5
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

                
And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?             10
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                 15
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 

                        
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?       20


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


              

4 comments:

  1. i dont really uderstand this poem

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  2. Is the "Tyger" a metaphor for her passion and maybe her love for someone/something?

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  3. i believe 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?

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  4. The speaker begins by asking what divine being could have created the piece. “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful symmetry?” Each subsequent stanza contains further questions that refine this first one. The speaker also wonders how the creator had the courage of finishing the job. He also wonders if the creator smiled and also how he might have felt after finishing the creation.
    Stefanie Zapata

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