The Tyger by William Blake line by line Explanation:
First Stanza
1) Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
(Tiger tiger, resplendent with bright light,)
2) In the forests of the night;
(In the deep forest of night;)
3) What immortal hand or eye,
(no eternal power or vision,)
4) Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
(Could your scary Sushma create?)
Second stanza:
5) In what distant deeps or skies.
(in some distant abyss or firmament,)
6) Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
(Did your eyes light up?)
7) On what wings dare he aspire?
(On what fin does he dare to be ambitious?)
8) What the hand, dare seize the fire?
(Which hand dares to take that fire?)
Third Stanza:
9) And what shoulder, & what art,
(No power, no skill,)
10) Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
(Can your heart get on the nerves?)
11) And when thy heart began to beat.
(And when your heart starts pounding,)
12) What dread hand? & what dread feet?
(Any scary hands? Any scary feet?)
Fourth Stanza:
13) What the hammer? what the chain,
(No striking instrument? No bond,)
14) In what furnace was thy brain?
(In what hot furnace was your brain formed?)
15) What the anvil? what dread grasp.
(No iron plate? No fierce grip,)
16) Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
(Dare to grasp its mortal fear?)
Fifth Stanza:
17) When the stars threw their spears
(When the stars laid down their arms)
18) And water'd heaven with their tears:
(And wet the sky with their cries:)
19) Did he smile his work to see?
(Did he smile and inspect his creation?)
20) Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
(Did He who made the innocent lamb make you?)
Sixth Stanza:
21) Tyger Tyger burning bright,
(Tiger tiger, resplendent with bright light,)
22) In the forests of the night:
(In the middle of the deep forest at night:)
23) What immortal hand or eye,
(no eternal power or vision,)
24) Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
(Does your fearsome Sushma dare to create?)
What is The Message of the "Tyger" by William Blake:
The poem is about a speaker who is amazed by God's creations and wonders why God would create a fearsome tiger, such as the one described as "burning bright" in the poem's central image.
The Tyger is Blake questioning whether a benevolent God can create violence and death. He assumes that such a beast must have been created, by an "immortal hand", and that the tiger cannot be an accident. He considers the tiger's features and uses powerful, fiery imagery to describe them and how they were made.
Blake's "TheTyger" has absorbed many interpretations without becoming waterlogged some wondrous nature or god has in his unquestionable wisdom created
both albatross and behemothn, "Who made the tiger?" The answer to this question often depends upon the answer to another: "What
qualities characterize this particular tiger?" The thesis of this article is that Blake himself (not Nobodaddy or Urizenor Nature), as artist, created the tiger, and that this tiger's major characteristics are those of the work of art as conceived by Blake during the writing of Songs of Experience. T. The tiger is in no way
morally or ethically reprehensible, is, in fact, no more subject to the restricting moral codes of institutions and reason than is the poet of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell who says that "Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained."
What is the Theme of "The Tyger" by William Blake:
1. Contrast Between Tiger and Lamb:
- The lamb is a creature of sacrifice, and a traditional symbol of human self-sacrifice. The tiger affects us as a ruthless self-seeker, but what makes it impossible for us to identify him with the Selfhood (as Blake used the term) is the splendid reality of the self he asserts and preserves.
- "The lamb's nature is diffused in a naturalistic surrounding—is reflected in and echoed by it, finally identified, without conflict or incongruity, with both child and Christ."
- "The lamb itself is only minimally self-assertive."
- The feeling that overwhelms us is one of a sharply defined identity undiluted by any association, symbolic or sympathetic, with anything outside its glorious and terrible self.
2. Symbolism and Identity:
- The lamb is a creature of sacrifice, and a traditional symbol of human self-sacrifice.
- The lamb's nature is diffused in a naturalistic surrounding—is reflected in and echoed by it, finally identified, without conflict or incongruity, with both child and Christ."
- "The tiger affects us as a ruthless self-seeker."
- The feeling that overwhelms us is one of a sharply defined identity undiluted by any association, symbolic or sympathetic, with anything outside its glorious and terrible self.
3. Experience vs. Innocence:
- For innocent eyes night is caught up in a scheme that tames it. Experience reverses all this: the world of Experience is such a night, and there's no escape or respite from it.
- In the tiger we're shown life's answer to Experience; here, we feel, is the champion life's unconquerable resilience throws up for the encounter with it.
4. Existence and Autonomy:
- "The tiger, on the other hand, is fiercely autonomous, magnificently there: a single nature, the thing that hypocrites most hate and fear."
- He burns with a ferocious energy, proclaiming his ferocity in his outward appearance, and in absolute truth to his tigerish nature makes no apology for it.
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