The Tyger - William Blake | Loving Poetry

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The Tyger - William Blake

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 watered 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?

posted by MartiInMexico

I love Blake. And this is especially wonderful. Every couplet is absolutely perfect, every couplet gives a complete picture.

Fearful symmetry. Wow. Wish I had thought up those words.

Do you think this is a metaphor of any kind? Or is it just about a tiger? COULD it be a metaphor for anything? It seems too powerful, too immense not to stand also for something else.

posted by MartiInMexico
2 months ago

I get the sense that it might be political and that he is speaking of a conqueror . The time frame is right for it to be Napoleon .

posted by Dirck
about 1 month ago

I think it is a metaphor about harsh reality, an unrelenting universe, the forces of the natural world, all these things. Harsh as it is, the tyger is as necessary as the lamb.

I'm thinking Cheney or someone like him, for some reason--a mover and a skaker no matter how much we don't like it.

Napoleon could work.

posted by crestofwaves
about 1 month ago

I've always thought Blake was asking the age-old question: How could a God of unlimited, unconditional love, create a world full of such evils?

Regardless of his meaning, it's a beautiful poem, and has always been one of my favorites. I don't recall, but I suspect that this is one of the first poems I read in school that made me think, "Hey, I kind of like this poetry stuff!"

posted by perpetualstudent
about 1 month ago

And yet, symmetry has traditionally been viewed as on of the properties of beauty. So, wouldn't a "fearful symmetry" be a beauty that frightens us?

Beauty and terror; Beauty and death. Why create something that combines both?

After having read Annie Dillard many times, re-reading this poem brings to mind her question about the creator (although she asks it in the context of looking at the insect world): "What kind of mind would have thought all this up? What kind of manic are we deally with?"