CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE TYGER

The Tyger by William Blake is taken from The Songs of Experience. The tiger
itself is a symbol for the fierce forces in the soul that are necessary to break the
bonds of experience. The tiger also stands for a divine spirit that will not be
subdued by restrictions, but will arise against established rules and conventions.
The Tyger is a highly symbolic poem based on Blakes personal philosophy of
spiritual and intellectual revolution by individuals. The speaker in the poem is
puzzled at the sight of a tiger in the night, and he asks it a series of questions about
its fierce appearance and about the creator who made it. But the context and
everything in it must be interpreted according to Blakes philosophy of symbolic
myths about human life, society and spiritual revolution.
It is also a romantic poem to some extent written by the pre-romantic William
Blake. The Tyger is a symbolic tiger which represents the fierce force in the
human soul. It is created in the fire of imagination by the god who has a supreme
imagination, spirituality and ideals. The anvil, chain, hammer, furnace and fire are
parts of the imaginative artists powerful means of creation. The imaginative artist
is synonymous with the creator. The man with a revolutionary spirit can use such
powers to fight against the evils of experience.
So, the god creating the tiger can be interpreted as any of these creative agents
which inspire common men to free their minds, hearts and souls from the chains of
social falsities- the king, the priest, the landlord and their systems that eat up the
individuals potentials. The creator has strong shoulders (energy) as well as art
(skills) and dread feet and hand. His courage is supreme, too. His creation is fierce,
almost daunting himself. So must be mans spirit and imagination, or the poets.
The forest is the symbol of corrupted social conventions and that tries to suppress
the good human potentials. In the poem night stands for ignorance, out of which
the forest of false social institutions is made.
Similarly, the context of a person asking questions and getting puzzles at the tiger
symbolically represents the final beginning of the realization and appreciation of
the forces of his own soul. This individual will then begin his personal spiritual
revolution. The poem is taken from the Songs of Experience which means the
adult world of corruption, immorality and suffering. Passing through the first phase
of Innocence or the pure childs-like world or mentality in Songs of
Innocence, and then having experienced the opposite world of experience, the
speaker in this poem has begun to recognize the suppressed power of his soul and

realize its necessity. He is himself puzzled at its fearful faces, and begins to realize
that he had gotten, not only the lamb-like humility, but also the tiger-like energy
for fighting back against the domination of the evil society. The qualities of the
original and pure man must be freed by using this tiger- like force of the soul.
Blakes imaginative man or creative artist is a rebellious being. It also represents
the double potentials in any human being.
Thematically, the poem is intended to make us to witness the persona realizing the
potentials of his soul and to realize it ourselves. We have not only the lamb
(Christ) like humility but also the tiger like quality for spiritual revolution and
freedom from falsities. The unusual spelling in Tyger is also a hint of the special
meaning and emphasis as the unusual stresses. The use of the first stanza as a
refrain repeating it with the difference of one word (dare) at the end is also for
special emphasis on its symbolism. Readers who have learnt some of the private
symbols of Blake can only understand this poem. But it is not too difficult after we
get at the basic symbols.

THE TYGER by William Blake

The Tyger is not a simplistic poem as it yields many interpretations. However, its
strong, resonating rhyming drives the key concept in readers mind efficiently.
William Blakes literary masterpiece, The Tyger has been scrutinized from literal
and metaphorical point of views as he revisits his preferred dilemmas of innocence
vs. experience. As for God, his creations are just beautiful and transcend the
notions of good-evil. As is the case with his earlier poems, The Tyger gives no
visible answers except offering more questions.
The poem slowly and gradually leads to asking some troubling questions. The
Tyger in essence is a poem where the poet asks the tiger about its creator and his
traits. Each stanza poses certain questions with a vague subject (Tyger) in
consideration. The poem largely questions the existence of god and its
metaphysical attributes referring to Tygers multiple corporeal characteristics as
purely a work of art. The poet wonders how the creator would have felt after
completing his creation. Is he also the creator of the lamb?

The Tyger Form

The poem The Tyger consists of 6-quatrains entailed in rhymed couplets. The
poem flows with a rhythmic synchronization with a regular meter, the hammering
is relevant to blacksmith herein. The poem has been written in a neat, regular
structure with neat proportions. The poem slowly points out to the final question
therein.

The Tyger Structure

The Tyger consists of 6-stanzas with each stanza consisting of 4-lines each. The
1st and last stanzas are similar with the word could and dare interchanged. The
poem at times is all about questions to the divine with at least 13-different
questions asked in the poems entirety. The poet seems worried as to how the
creator shaped up such a magnificent creature, but more so, how is the creator
himself?

Historical Perspective
After publishing Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience was published in 1794.
The aim of the poet was to demonstrate the contrarian nature of the soul and
human thought. The poem The Tyger was published in his collection of poems
known as Songs of Experience. It became an instant literary classic amongst alltime classic poems of modern era.
Songs of Experience was written in opposition to Songs of Innocence, key
components in Blakes thought process, being a radical thinker of his time. The
Tyger was the pinnacle of heresy for William Blake, pitching humans bearing the
onus for their actions.

STANZA 1
Tyger, Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry
The initial verse refers to tyger, imploring about its beauty and creator. As the
poem leads on gradually, the poem clearly makes it a point to discuss God as an
entity as opposed to the tyger. William Blake champions metaphors as the first one
is burning bright, refers to the tygers bright yellow fur, as it roams freely in the
forest night. The central question as the reader slowly realizes pertains existence of
God.
Slowly, William Blake attacks the Christian God as he asks whether a divine entity
is capable of creating such a mesmerizing creature with perfection definitions and
extraordinaire beauty. Whether he deems God impotent of creating such a fourlegged creature is left open-ended to the reader.

Fearful symmetry is a nuanced trait which has dual allusions, one for the tyger and
the other referring to divine deity. As apparent, the sublime characteristic refers to
an entity extremely big and powerful yet mysterious. As a result, the poet starts off
with poetic allusions, entirely open-ended for the reader to perceive as he pleases.
He slowly arrives at the question as how would a God be when he hath created
such a scary creature walking freely in the jungle.

STANZA 2
In what distant deep or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
The poets fascination with Tyger ever increases as he seems mesmerized with his
fiery eyes. He feels that the fire in his eyes came from a distant heavenly body such

as hell/ heaven. The poet adds to the fiery image of Tyger by using the metaphor of
burning from first verse. The third line throws the reader off track. William Blake
is slowly coming to the point of his argument, God.
The poet resonates the point that Tyger reflects its creator. The poet furthermore
creates a more supernatural image using the words of hand, wings and fire,
relating to the divine being. These words have been reiterated from above. The
term daring is introduced which is reverberated in the latter stanza.

STANZA 3
And what shoulder, and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when they heart began to beat,
What dead hand? And what dread feet?
The poet in this stanza discusses the physical characteristics of the almighty
creator, contemplating about his various physical features. The lines are lost in
translation as the poet wonders in-depth about Gods physical attributes which
could also be an allegory to tygers characteristics.

STANZA 4
What the hammer? Whats the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dead grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp
This stanza questions the steps involved in creation of the all-mighty jungle
creature, the tyger. An allegorical reference to blacksmith, he hypothesizes some
intelligent creator developing his creation akin to a blacksmith as he cuts, hammers
and forms metal after considerable toil. The stanza is steeped in rhythmic poetry,
adding flair and color. As apparent, the poet is getting impatient and embarks on
questioning the faith and its overalls.

STANZA 5
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?
These are the Christian verses of the poem. The first line clearly indicates the
demotion of Gods arch-angel Satan as a sign of rebellion against Gods will. Its
also a veiled reference to Robert Frosts poem Paradise Lost. He refers to allmighty creator looking with reverence at his finalized creation. This stanza is
purely Christian by all means. The lamb can dually mean the lamb of god or
lamb from his poem The Lamb. The former is an open reference to Jesus Christ
(the Lamb of God), sent by God on earth to atone sins of mankind.

STANZA 6
Tyger Tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry
The last stanza is the repetition of the first as a chorus. Albeit, the word could has
been replaced by dare by the poet. The poet in this section attempts to question
the creators ability. The poet embarks on challenging the ability of his creator to
creating this mighty creature.

PERSONAL COMMENTARY
William Blake builds on the general perception that all living entities must reflect
its creator in some mannerism. The opening verses slowly leads to the primary
objective of the poem, contemplating about God in the heavens above. In essence,
the tiger is a beautifully enigmatic creature, yet lethal at the same time. This also
reflects the nature of God as he contemplates that a God could be just as loving and
just as lethal when needed be. As a result, what kind of being can be both violent
and so magnificent simultaneously? The poem explores the moral dilemma of the
poet largely concerned with metaphysical entity. It becomes a symbolic allegory to
God in hindsight.
As the poet contends, that such a powerfully destructive living entity can be a
creation of a purely, artful God. The poet precludes the notion of tigers creation in
any way accidental or haphazard. He feels that this tiger is allotted immense
physical strength as it can wield its command over weaker animals.
The final allusion to the lamb can connote his reference to poem, The Lamb as he
compares the timid living animal to that of tiger. God created tiger as a dominant
creature while the lamb is simply a weakling compared to tiger. On the whole,
The Tyger consists of unanswered questions, the poet leaves his readers
pondering the will of the creator, his limitless power and awe of his creation, a
three-fold subject. In conclusion, the poet ends his poem with perspectives of
innocence and experience, both a subject of great interest to him.
Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience juxtapose opposing sides of
human nature, comparing and contrasting innocence with corruption. The Tyger
is an extension of the same theme, representing two diverse perspectives of the
human world. William Blake doesnt take either side, but paints an opposing
worldview for his readers. He also seems opposed to 3-fold controlling forces of
religion, despotic rule and sexual repression.