EX-the Tyger Flashcards
The Tyger has been often compared to which poem in the songs of Innocence?
“The Lamb”
Centrally the poem asks a question about creation; how can we understand a God who is capable of creating the innocence of the lamb and the fury of a Tyger. However, how does Blake make this question far more complex?
as at the same time, Blake is suggesting an equivalence between divine creation and the human creation of what frames the tiger
For Blake, as for whom, was there little difference between the human creator as a version of divine creativity and divine creation itself?
Coleridge
Structually the single word “could” in stanza one is changed to “dare” in stanza 6, what is the effect of this?
The questioning of the divinity of creatures is by the end of the poem undisputed.
How is the Tyger described in the poem?
as a “dread” beast
What does “dread” mean?
both fearsome and fearing
How does the poem begin?
with the speaker asking a fearsome tiger what kind of divine being could have created it (“What immortal hand or eye/Could frame they fearful symmetry”)
What is Blake suggesting in th poem Tyger and his questioning the creator “What immortal hand”?
he is building on the conventional idea that nature, like a work of art, must in some way contain a reflection of its creator
What does the Tyger symbolise for the world in general?
that there is an undeniable existence of evil and violence in the world which informs us of the true nature of God whom created a world which contained both beauty and horror
The reference to the lamb in the penultimate stanza has what impact on the reader?
we remember that the tiger and lamb have been created by the same God
The perspective of experience in this poem involves a sophisticated acknowledgement of what is unexplainable in the universe, presenting evil as a prime example of something that cannot be denied but will not withstand faclice explanation either. What does this compare to?
The magnificence of the “burning bright” Tyger compared to its inner darkness hidden in the “burnt fire of thine eyes” compares to that of society. Blake could be suggesting a parallel between the evil ideology and suppression of the state to the innocent which is reviewed in poems such as the Chimney Sweeper
What year was the Songs of Experience published?
1794
