THE TYGER by WILLIAM BLAKE (Summary)

 

THE TYGER

by WILLIAM BLAKE

(Summary) 

William Blake was the poet of ‘the age of Dr. Johnson’. This period is also called ‘The age of transition’. The general characteristics of this age are-

•   Decline of the party feud,

•   the French revolution,

•   renaissance of learning,

•   the new realism,

•   the rise of middle class and

•   the spirit of humanity.

William Blake was born in 1757 in London. He was a strange imaginative child. Beyond learning to read and write he received no education. He writes his poetry on simple themes. Mysticism and lyricism are the major characteristics of his poetry.

The Tyger

(The Poem)

Tyger Tyger, 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, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & 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?

 

Tyger Tyger burning bright,

In the forests of the night:

What immortal hand or eye,

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

In the poem ‘The Tiger’ Blake conveys that both good and bad elements are present in this Universe. He means to say that experience is as necessary in the Universe as Innocence.

The poet says that Tiger is shining in the forest of night. He is surprised to see the fearful symmetry of the tiger and says that who the immortal creator of this tiger is. He further asks another question which expresses his surprise for the fiery eyes of the tiger. He asks about the place where the creator has gone to take the fire of its eyes. He is in doubt whether the fire is found in deeps or skies. He also expresses his surprise on the daring hands that had seized the fire.

In the third stanza the poet talks about the making of the tiger. According to him it must be the power of some supernatural that had shaped its heart and when the heart began to beat that must be the dreadful hand and dreadful feet. He then talks about the making of tiger’s brain. For this the creator must have used the smithy instruments like hammer, chain, furnace and anvil. He says that when the creation of this fearful creature has been completed the universe starts moving from light to darkness- “The stars threw down their spears and watered heaven with their tears”.

In the last part of this poem the poet again asks a question as whether the creator of this tiger smiled to see his creation and also whether the creator of the lamb is the same who has created the tiger. The last stanza of this poem repeats the thought of the first stanza except the last line of the stanza where he used ‘dare’ in place of ‘could’.

The poet has written this poem with 7 syllabic lines, each of one metrical foot. ‘Tiger’ is the symbol of experience, whereas ‘Lamb’ of innocence. The poet has used concrete images in this poem. Alliteration and rhyming couplet have also been used. Adjectives are in abundance in ‘The Tiger’