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Theme
.......“The
Tiger,” by William Blake (1757-1827), presents a question that embodies
the theme: Who created the tiger? Was it the kind and loving God who made
the lamb? Or was it Satan? Blake presents his question in Lines 3
and 4:
What
immortal hand or eye
Could
frame thy fearful symmetry?
 Blake
realizes, of course, that God made all the creatures on earth. However,
to express his bewilderment that the God who created the gentle lamb also
created the terrifying tiger, he includes Satan as a possible creator while
raising his rhetorical questions, notably the one he asks in Lines 5 and
6:
In
what distant deeps or skies
Burnt
the fire of thy eyes?
Deeps
appears to refer to hell and skies to heaven. In either case, there
would be fire--the fire of hell or the fire of the stars.
.......Of
course, there can be no gainsaying that the tiger symbolizes evil, or the
incarnation of evil, and that the lamb (Line 20) represents goodness, or
Christ. Blake's inquiry is a variation on an old philosophical and theological
question: Why does evil exist in a universe created and ruled by a benevolent
God? Blake provides no answer. His mission is to reflect reality
in arresting images. A poet’s first purpose, after all, is to present the
world and its denizens in language that stimulates the aesthetic sense;
he is not to exhort or moralize. Nevertheless, the poem does stir the reader
to deep thought. Here is the tiger, fierce and brutal in its quest for
sustenance; there is the lamb, meek and gentle in its quest for survival.
Is it possible that the same God who made the lamb also made the tiger?
Or was the tiger the devil's work?
Meter
The
poem is in trochaic tetrameter with catalexis at the end of each line.
Here is an explanation of these technical terms:
Tetrameter
Line: a poetry line usually with eight syllables but sometimes seven.
Trochaic
Foot: A pair of syllables--a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed
syllable.
Catalexis:
The absence of a syllable in the final foot in a line. In Blake’s poem,
an unstressed syllable is absent in the last foot of each line. Thus, every
line has seven syllables, not the conventional eight.
The following
illustration using the first two lines of the poem demonstrates tetrameter
with four trochaic feet, the last one catalectic:
.....1...........2...........3...............4
TIger,
|
TIger,
|
BURN
ing |
BRIGHT
.....1...........2...........3...............4
IN
the |
FOR
ests |
OF
the |
NIGHT
Notice
that the fourth foot in each line eliminates the conventional unstressed
syllable (catalexis). However, this irregularity in the trochaic
pattern does not harm the rhythm of the poem. In fact, it may actually
enhance it, allowing each line to end with an accented syllable that seems
to mimic the beat of the maker’s hammer on the anvil. For a detailed discussion
of meter and the various types of feet, click
here.
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Structure
and Rhyme Scheme
The poem consists of six
quatrains. (A quatrain is a four-line stanza.) Each quatrain contains two
couplets. (A couplet is a pair of rhyming lines). Thus we have a 24-line
poem with 12 couplets and 6 stanzas–a neat, balanced package. The question
in the final stanza repeats (except for one word, dare) the wording
of the first stanza, perhaps suggesting that the question Blake raises
will continue to perplex thinkers ad infinitum.
Figures
of Speech and Allusions
Paradox: If
the maker of the tiger also made the lamb.
Metaphor: Comparison
of the tiger to a fire.
Anaphora: Repetition
of what at the beginning of sentences or clauses. Example: What
dread hand and what dread feet? / What the hammer? what the chain?
Allusion: Immortal
hand or eye: God or Satan
Allusion: Distant
deeps or skies: hell or heaven
Alliteration: See
poem annotations.
Symbols
The Tiger: Evil (or
Satan)
The Lamb: Goodness
(or God)
Distant Deeps: Hell
Skies: Heaven
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The Tiger
By William Blake
Published in 1794 in Songs
of Experience
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Text
of the Poem
1
Tiger,
tiger,
burning
bright
In the forests
of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame
thy fearful
symmetry?
2
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?
3
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?
4
What the hammer? what the
chain?
In what furnace was thy
brain?
What the anvil? What dread
grasp
Dare its deadly terrors
clasp?
5
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?
6
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? |
Annotations
Alliteration
The color-coded letters in
the first two stanzas give examples of alliteration.
Meaning of the Poem
Stanza 1: What immortal
being created this terrifying creature which, with its perfect proportions
(symmetry), is an awesome killing machine?
Stanza 2: Was it created
in hell (distant deeps) or in heaven (skies)? If the creator
had wings, how could he get so close to the fire in which the tiger was
created? How could he work with so blazing a fire?
Stanza 3: What strength
(shoulder) and craftsmanship (art) could make the tiger's
heart? What being could then stand before it (feet) and shape it
further (hand)?
Stanza 4: What kind
of tool (hammer) did he use to fashion the tiger in the forge fire?
What about the chain connected to the pedal which the maker used to pump
the bellows? What of the heat in the furnace and the anvil on which the
maker hammered out his creation? How did the maker muster the courage to
grasp the tiger?
Stanza 5: When the
stars cast their light on the new being and the clouds cried, was the maker
pleased with his creation?
Stanza 6: The poet
repeats the the central question of the poem, stated in Stanza 1. However,
he changes could (Line 4) to dare (Line 24). This is a significant
change, for the poet is no longer asking who had the capability of creating
the tiger but who dared to create so frightful a creature.
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