THE TIGER
by: William Blake (1757-1827)
TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
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?
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?
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?
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
by: William Blake (1757-1827)
TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
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?
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?
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?
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
النمر
شعر : وليام بليك
النمرُ ! النمر ! أيها القط البري
يا من تشتعلُ بهاءً
في الغاباتِ الليلية
أي أيد ٍ وعيون ٍ أبدية
شكلت هذا الجمال البري
في عذوبة ٍ وعفوية ؟
من أشعلَ النارَ
في تلكَ العيون ِ العسلية ؟
وبأي أعماق ٍ أو سماواتٍ علوية
شكلت هذا الجمال
وأي جناح ٍ يجرؤ ان يتمنى أو يختار
وأي يد ٍ يمكنها أن تصطاد َ النار ؟
أي قدرة أو أي مهارة
خلقت تلك الثنايا
وزرعت فيكَ الجسارة
عندما يبدأُ قلبك َ في الهجوم
بمخلبٍ قويٍ ويدٍ من حديد
كالمطرقة أو سلاسل الفولاذ المتينة
تقبض على الفريسة المسكينة
بإرادةٍ صلبة وقوة شكيمة
عندما ترسلُ النجوم ُ أشعتها الذهبية
وتروي السماء الأرضَ بدموعها الندية
هل يشعر بالسعادة من خلق هذا الصنيع ؟
هل مَن خلقكَ هو الذي خلق الحمل الوديع ؟
النمرُ ! النمر ! أيها القط البري
يا من تشتعلُ بهاءً
في الغاباتِ الليلية
أي أيد ٍ وعيون ٍ أبدية
شكلت هذا الجمال البري
في عذوبة ٍ وعفوية ؟
شعر : وليام بليك
النمرُ ! النمر ! أيها القط البري
يا من تشتعلُ بهاءً
في الغاباتِ الليلية
أي أيد ٍ وعيون ٍ أبدية
شكلت هذا الجمال البري
في عذوبة ٍ وعفوية ؟
من أشعلَ النارَ
في تلكَ العيون ِ العسلية ؟
وبأي أعماق ٍ أو سماواتٍ علوية
شكلت هذا الجمال
وأي جناح ٍ يجرؤ ان يتمنى أو يختار
وأي يد ٍ يمكنها أن تصطاد َ النار ؟
أي قدرة أو أي مهارة
خلقت تلك الثنايا
وزرعت فيكَ الجسارة
عندما يبدأُ قلبك َ في الهجوم
بمخلبٍ قويٍ ويدٍ من حديد
كالمطرقة أو سلاسل الفولاذ المتينة
تقبض على الفريسة المسكينة
بإرادةٍ صلبة وقوة شكيمة
عندما ترسلُ النجوم ُ أشعتها الذهبية
وتروي السماء الأرضَ بدموعها الندية
هل يشعر بالسعادة من خلق هذا الصنيع ؟
هل مَن خلقكَ هو الذي خلق الحمل الوديع ؟
النمرُ ! النمر ! أيها القط البري
يا من تشتعلُ بهاءً
في الغاباتِ الليلية
أي أيد ٍ وعيون ٍ أبدية
شكلت هذا الجمال البري
في عذوبة ٍ وعفوية ؟
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He begins the first quatrain with “Tyger! Tyger!burning bright.”
Right away he uses repetition to catch the reader’s eye. The word “Tyger” is a
symbol of all creation. In his poem, “The Lamb”, he uses the Lamb as a symbol
of innocent mankind, where as the “Tyger” is a much more wild, mysterious and
ferocious animal capable of great good and terrifying evil. Blake then supports
that idea by describing the Tyger as “Burning Bright” The burning bright
meaning being so ferocious, being so capable, so intelligent, and having the
power to do anything. Going along with the idea of the Tyger being a wild,
mysterious creature, he uses powerful imagery with the line “In the forests of
the night.” This imagery creates an awesome scene of a dark, mysterious
environment in which the Tyger is lurking. This suggests that the Tyger is like
a creature of the night, very dark, very mysterious, and again, capable of
doing unknown goods and evils. Blake ends his first quatrain with a rhetorical
question. “what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?” The
immortal hand or eye Blake uses is referring to a God. So he is saying, what
God could create or “frame” something g that is both beautiful, symmetrical,
and also so terrifying and fearful. The God who created such a creature is
fearful because he made this beautiful creature of mankind to have free will.
With free will means that they can choose to do right and wrong, and that in itself
is terrifying.
Blake begins the second quatrain of the piece with some imagery
as well as another rhetorical question. “In what distant deeps or skies burnt
the fire of thing eyes?” By the terms distend deeps or skies, Blake is using an
allusion to create a picture of Heaven and Hell. The line “Burnt the fire of
thine eyes” is directed at God. These are God’s eyes. Blake is asking, who was
the God who created the Tyger. Was he the God in heaven/”skies” or was he
created by Lucifer in hell or “distant deeps”(Source).
The next two lines are more rhetorical questions where he asks “on what wings
dare he aspire?” and “what the hand dare seize the fire?” Again, he is
wondering what God could create such a creature like the tyger. Was he a God
who is sitting on wings? Or is he a God who has to work with a blazing fire (Source).
However, Blake was known to like using the Greek Gods in his works. The
question “On what wings dare he aspire?” could refer to Icarus. Icarus created
wings so that he could fly free of a labyrinth (Source). The second
rhetorical question “What the hand dare seize the fire?” could refer to the God
Prometheus. Prometheus is a Gode who stole fire from Zeus and gave that fire to
mankind. So Blake’s asking who would dare seize the fire with their hands.
Well, Prometheus dared to seize the
fire so he could share it with man (Source). Each question
used powerful images to enhance the content of the text.
In Blake’s third stanza or quatrain, he uses yet another
rhetorical question, directed to ask “Who created this creature?” He uses
powerful imagery to provide a picture of a God literally molding/ creating the
tyger. “And what shoulder, and what art could twist the sinews of thy heart?”
In these lines, the “thy” is referring to the tyger. “Could twist the sinews of
thy (Tyger’s) heart.” Blake used the word “twisted” to remind us of the free
will God made man with. The “twisted” is also to remind how “twisted” or
sometimes corrupt Humans can be (Source).
Later in the stanza, Blake asks another question pertaining again to “Who could
make a frightening creature?” Blake uses imagery to show how the heart of this
Beast begins to beat and then once God had make the heart beat, he says “what
dread hand? and what dread feet?” This shows how God again asks himself if he
dreaded creating such a magnificent creature that is capable of both good and
evil (Source).
The fourth stanza in Blakes’s poem begins with an awesome
allusion, referring to the Greek God Haphaestus. “Hephaestus is the blacksmith
God of fire and metallurgy who was plagued with a lame leg and toiled under the
volcano, Mount Aetna, creating weapons, armor, and artwork for other God’s who
distained him for his ugliness”(source).
“What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain?” From the
words Blake presents and image of a God like Hephaestus, in a dark, hell-like
place, just hammering away to create this beast. By saying “In what furnace was
thy brain?” Blake is implying the tyger to be made of hard, metallic “Stuff.”
In the next line, he uses “What the anvil?” to again, paint the picture of a
God like Hephaestus hammering away on an anvil to create the tyger out of metallic
substances. To close the stanza, Blake uses alot of dark, ominous words. “what
dreap grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” The words dread, dare, deadly, and
terrors are worlds that describe something evil. Blake chooses to uses these
words to paint an image of the tyger being an evil creature, which begins to
lean us away from the assumption that the tyger was created by the God in
heaven, and therefore capable of good as well as evil. The tyger and its
deadly, terrors clasp is more imagery to remind us that the tyger is dark,
mysterious, and horrifying (source).
Blake starts his fifth quatrain with powerful imagery as well as
an allusion. ” When the stars threw down their spears, And water’d heaven with
their tears,” the imagery in these two lines clearly forms some kind of
picture. Blake however had some hidden symbolism in the words in these lines.
It is an old tale that the twinkling of stars are the Angels in
the heavens. Looking closely, it can be suggested that the word “Stars” means
Angels. So the Angels are throwing down their spears. Why else whould they do
that except for during the War of Angels? There was a time that Lucifer became
enraged and rebelled against God and his Angels. Lucifer then went up into the
heavens and battled with God and his Angels. When it says “Stars threw down
their spears,” it is talking about when God’s Angels defeated Lucifer’s Angels
by using spears (Source).
The next part of these lines “And water’d heaven with their tears.” is also
speaking about the Holy War of the Angels. The Angels of God are watering the
heavens with their tears because they feel compassion to thier Angel brother
who follow Lucifer (source).
The Next two lines of the poem are again a few rhetorical questions, however
this time, they begin to suggest something different. So far, most of the
questions have led us to believe that the tyger is evil, so its creator would
inherently be Lucifer. This time, the questions point to the conclusion that it
was infact God who made the tyger (mankind). But, was God happy with the
results of his creaton of mankind (the tyger)? “Did he smile his work to see?”
(Line 19). This line is the support for the question, “was God happy with what
he created?” Did he actually smile to see what the “Tyger has/can do with it’s
free will? Line 20 reads: “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” This is where
the table turns towards God as the creator of the tyger, not Lucifer. In
Blake’s other poem “The Lamb”, the lamb is a symbol of perfection and
innocence. It is a creation so pure, unable of doing wrong. Being that the
tyger is not perfect, and pure, it is hard to believe that the same God cerated
both these creatures. However, Blake has intended the rhetorical question in
line 20 to show us that they were infact made by the same creator, and that
creator is the God in heaven (source).
The sixth and final
quatrain of the poem is a recap of the first quatrain. He uses repition to
bring back the “Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, in the forests of the night, what
immoral hand or eye.” Those three lines are identical to the first three lines
of hte poem. The “Tyger” links to mankind, the burning bright refers to the
flourishing and furiousity of the tyger(mankind). The line “in the forest of
the night” again is used as imagery to get the readure to picture a dark,
mysterious environment, implying that the tyger is a creatyre of the night.
Lastly, the immortal hand or eye is a symbol of a higher power. What God is the one who created the
tyger(mankind), a creature that is both terrifying and beautiful at the same
time. There is one difference that Blake made in his final stanza from the
first one. This difference comes in the last line of the poem, line 24. In the first stanza,
Blake asked “Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” Meaning, is God actually
capable of creating a creature so terrifying yet beautiful. In line 24 of the
poem, Blake changes his question to ask “DARE frame thy fearful symmetry?” Now,
the question is not if God is powerful enough to create a creature like the
tyger, but what God would even dare to create a creature so terrifying. Would
he dare create the tyger(manking) with free will, knowing that free will may
lead them astray from worshiping the lord. There is one central point that Blake
wanted to get through to us. In his poems, “The Lamb” and “The Tyger”, it was
God who created both the Tyger and the Lamb. Although they are different and
the tyger is said to possess traits of evil, God knew what he was doing, and he
made the tyger (mankind) to be free, so that we could live happily.
The stage of the Hero
Journey that is most represented in the poem “The Tyger” is the birth. The
Birth is about the becoming of existence for a hero. In the poem, the tyger is
our hero, and he is being born into the world via creation of God. The birth is
when a hero first begins to realize his or her true identity by tests and
natural experiences. The tyger is being born in the poem, and Blake is
attempting to show us what his identity is. Birth is the beginning of a hero’s
life, and at first, they have the choice of whether they want to be good or
evil. They are capable of both at birth, just as the tyger is capable of doing
good and evil.
Why is
"Tiger" spelt with a "y" in William Blake's poem?
1) "Tyger is an archaic spelling of tiger, which is still retained as the name of various things named after the animal."
1) "Spelling of tyger
Blake's spelling is often idiosyncratic, though "tyger" was a common spelling of the word in his day. It has sometimes been argued that he specifically chose archaic or unusual English spellings in his writings, and that perhaps Tyger "suggests the exotic or alien quality of the beast". However, this may be a projection of modern attitudes, since the same spelling was used by writers other than Blake. The retention of the archaic spelling is a convention in modern editions."
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