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| The Tyger, by William Blake
Poem Interpretation 1 Tyger! Tyger! burning bright 2 In the forests of the night, 3 What immortal hand or eye 4 Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 5 In what distant deeps or skies 6 Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 7 On what wings dare he aspire? 8 What the hand dare seize the fire? 9 And what shoulder, and what art, 10 Could twist the sinews of thy heart, 11 And when thy heart began to beat, 12 What dread hand? and what dread feet? 13 What the hammer? what the chain? 14 In what furnace was thy brain? 15 What the anvil? what dread grasp 16 Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 17 When the stars threw down their spears, 18 And water'd heaven with their tears, 19 Did he smile his work to see? 20 Did he who made the Lamb made thee? 21 Tyger! Tyger! burning bright 22 In the forests of the night, 23 What immortal hand or eye, 24 Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? Important Vocabulary 1 - Tyger as a symbol of energy (which is a quality for Blake), strenght, lust and cruelty 5,6 - The brightness from the skies is something that hurts 13 - The old God kept man in chains 17 - When the angels cried for Lucifer 20 - The God that created the Lamb, did He also created the Tyger? This question represents the dilemma of mankind Interpretation This poem is built like a question, there are no affirmative sentences. There's an idea of sound, a sort of rhythm. There's a fight between the God of the Old Testament and the new God. God kept man in chains, because He was envious of his creation. The old God is the God of reason, who punishes. The new God is the God of hope. Lucifer was God's right hand. Knowledge was forbidden to him, and he rebelled and was expelled from Heaven. The angels cried when this happened. But before his tragedy, Lucifer smiles synically, a sadist attitude. He smiles at the creator for two reasons: the need for the existence of God and the need for the existence of Evil. We need God because the world is not perfect; and if Evil didn't exist, what would man need God for? Evil is a creation of God; He had to create Evil so He could go on. Without this, man would have no imagination, he would be God's possession . Carla Diana Cardoso, for Study of Texts - English, Translation course at ISLA Copyright by Didi Cardoso. This file is the author's own work. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. You may not reproduce it in any way without written permission from the author. |
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