The Tyger By William Blake

The poet, painter and engraver, William Blake was born in 1757, to a London haberdasher. Blake’s only formal education was in art. At the age of ten, he entered a drawing school and then at the age of fourteen, he apprenticed to an engraver. ( Abrams & Stillinger 18). Although, much of Blake’s time was spent studying art, he enjoyed reading and soon began to write poetry. Blake’s first book of poems, Poetical Sketches, "showed his dissatisfaction with the reigning poetic tradition and his restless quest for new forms and techniques" ( Abrams & Stillinger 19). Poetical Sketches, was followed by many other works including, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. These series were accompanied by etchings, which depict

Unlike the lamb this poems meaning is something different I believe. In my opinion this poem can be interpreted as a response to the industrialization that Britain was going through during the time of Blake. I think we first see this in the title “The Tyger” or tiger misspelled. When you think of a tiger you think of ruthlessness, ferocity, fast acting, just as the industrialization of Britain. This theme is very common through out Blake’s pieces as we see it in almost every poem. It is present in “The Chimney Sweeper” and “London”. Blake paints an image of what the tiger represents through out this poem and its harsh nonetheless, which further makes me believe that he is talking about the revolution. I believe that the description of the tyger that Blake gives us an insight to think that it is unpleasant and hurtful, not necessarily the tyger itself but the revolution that is tied in with it. We see the word “dread” repeatedly used in describing the tyger and we can draw a conclusion to say that it puts an emphasis on the pain and suffering that was

Before watching your presentation, I only knew the basics regarding William Blake. There are various interesting things that you mentioned that I did not know about. For example, you mentioned how he was more commonly known for his art rather than his poems. His art as a whole is really interesting. You mentioned how he took his encounters with the people around him, his brother’s death, and visions and reflected them into his work. One thing from that list that stood out to me the most were his visions. He was able to take his visions and portray them in his paintings even when many people found it difficult to understand the meanings behind it.

The first line in the poem says, “Tyger Tyger, burning bright.” By Blake repeating the word Tyger twice, it feels to the reader as if we are speaking directly to the tiger. The

On January 1st, 2017, a gang held an alleyway waiting for people to come through so they and take their money. The alley was very dark. People came through the alley at nights and trashed the alley, cracking windows, leaving cigarettes on the dirty spray-painted ground littered with sharp shards of glass from a broken window. Their leader, Kole Blazer, was there in the rooftops, waiting for someone to come through, when he saw someone betray his gang: Mike Blazer, his brother. Kole was taller than him by only a few inches. He had brown hair, freckles, blue eyes, more muscular than his brother who was always the weaker one, but they were twins and he wanted to keep a secret. His brother betrayed them and now it’s time for payback.

In the poem, Blake uses a tiger because it is one of the most disheartening animals on land. With experience comes evil. When Blake asks in line 20 “Did he who make the Lamb make thee?” He speculates if God, who is the creator of something so innocent, could create something so ferocious and experienced. The tiger also symbolizes fire. The words “burning,” “fire,” and “furnace” is used within the poem to express the evil in the fire.

Melissa and Brett went diving only to find a sunken ship. They decided to explore the ship. They found a jewel in the wreckage. They decided to take the jewel to get it appraised. When suddenly they heard something behind them. What was that, asked Melissa. It sounded like a spear gun, said Brett. Two other divers appeared out of nowhere, give us that jewel, said the strangers, or you will not make it up to the surface. You are not getting this jewel, said Brett. We found it first ,said Melissa. We are the ones who sunk that ship just to get our hands on that jewel, and you are not going to ruin this for us, said one of the strangers. Our boss wants that jewel for his collection and we are not going to let him down. Who is your boss, asked

In the poem “The Tyger”, the animal theme is exhibited through the narrator’s relentless questions of the tiger. In the poem it says, “What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?” (23-24). This happens to be the narrator’s way of asking who would dare to create an animal so vicious and dangerous. Throughout the poem, the speaker asks various questions about the ferocity of the creature. Be that as it may, this is the nature of a tiger. They are wild animals that are dangerous, and act on instinct.

These words conjure a being with terrible strength, one that might also harbor malicious intent. Blake uses images here to ask whether evil or good lies behind the creation of the fearsome tiger. Blake uses imagery to question whether a beneficent God would create the tiger and, thus, other potential horrors in the world. "When the stars threw down their spears … And water'd heaven with their tears… Did he smile his work to see? …

William Blake was a painter, engraver and poet of the Romantic era, who lived and worked in London. Many of Blake’s famous poems reside in his published collection of poems titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience. This collection portrays the two different states of the human soul, good and evil. Many poems in the Songs of Innocence have a counterpart poem in the Songs of Experience. The poem “A Poison Tree” is found in the Songs of Experience and it delves into the mind of man tainted with sin and corruption that comes with experience. In a simple and creative style, the religious theology of the Fall of Man is brought to life. The poem tells the story of how man fell from a state of innocence to impurity, focusing on the harmful repercussions of suppressed anger. Blake utilities many literary devices to successfully characterizes anger as an antagonist with taunting power.

The two poems that have to deal with the philosophies of human nature are William Blake’s “The Tyger” and Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Blake’s poem is based off the Romantics and Walt Whitman is an American Naturalist that is based off free verse a form that he created.

Blake begins to worry of the horror of the tiger and actually begins to question if God really made it or perhaps a more evil immortal was behind it. Blake first questioned who created the tiger in “What immortal hand or eye”, then adds on to the mystery with “In what distant deeps or skies”. The “deeps” refers to hell, and Blake consistently refers to “fire” when referring to the tiger which gives strength to the assumption of the tiger being forged in the fires of hell. However, “skies” refers to the heavens and God. “On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?” Blake again questions whether God (“wings”) or Satan (“fire”) created the tiger. Blake could assume the tiger was created by the devil because the devil is the source of evil and horror, which is why Blake is at a bewilderment of the creation of this creature because it is so beautiful but it’s so terrifying. However, Blake knows that God created all life in our world, yet he adds Satan as a possible creator because of the bafflement he witnessed of seeing the first glance of the tiger.

The poem opens up with the words, “Tyger Tyger, burning bright,” which in this case makes the words Tyger appear to the reader as if the author is speaking directly to the Tyger and sets up the theme of night along with which come darkness and evil. The words “burning bright” are used as a comparison to the Tyger. Blake chooses fire to be compared to the Tyger because both are known to be harmful, strong, wild, forceful, and destructive. In a way, they also resemble each other in looks, as a Tyger in the dark, looks like a fire because of its orange stripes. The third and fourth lines aske the first unanswered question: What creator has the ability to make something with such “fearful symmetry” (4)? The second stanza asks the same question but in a completely different way, wondering where the Tyger came from. In lines 10 and 20, Blake’s asks two questions. These questions are different from the rest, he asks, “Did he smile his work to see? /Did he who made the lamb make thee?’’ (19, 20) These lines are asking if the creator was happy with his work of such destructive soul, it also asks if the creator of the lamb was also the creator of the Tyger. You can look at this as if Blake was trying to connect the evil Tyger with the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The last lines ask the same question as the first, who could and who would create the Tyger.

William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The life of a hosier however was not the right path for Blake as he exhibited early on a skill for reading and drawing. Blake’s skill for reading can be seen in his understanding for and use of works such as the Bible and Greek classic literature.

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. He was not recognized during his lifetime and now is considered as a seminal figure and criticised over the twentieth and even this century. Blake’s strong philosophical and religious beliefs in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. Although he was from London he spent his entire life in Felpham.