The Tyger

Question 1

What does the title mean?

Answer 1

Draws parallel to the poem “The Lamb” which was a symbol of an innocent mankind

Question 2

Tyger, Tyger

Answer 2

Direct address to tiger –> The repetition emphasises the beautiful and dangerous complexity that can be found in nature and in this creature

Question 3

burning bright

Answer 3

Alliteration –> emphasises its beauty - appearance, eyes and fur

Question 4

what immortal hand or eye

Answer 4

Allusions to the divine –> Poet asks what kind of God makes something so majestic yet so terrifying

Question 5

frame thy fearful

Answer 5

Alliteration –> Highlights the tiger’s contradictory appearance and nature

Question 6

thy fearful symmetry?

Answer 6

The tiger’s sublime (beauty) causes feelings of respect and fear at the same time and the questioning intrigues the reader

Question 7

and what shoulder, & what art

Answer 7

Ampersand (&) –> adds to the speed of his questions

Question 8

shoulder…hand…feet…heart

Answer 8

Semantic field of body parts –> Heightens the poet’s intrigue with the tiger’s composition

Question 9

dread hand?…dread feet?

Answer 9

Repetition –> The poet wonders what fearsome creator made such a terrifying yet magnificent creature - the creator must be quite fearsome

Question 10

Hammer…furnace…anvil

Answer 10

Semantic field of blacksmith –> Poet imagines a blacksmith crafting the tiger

Question 11

Dare its deadly

Answer 11

Alliteration –> Focuses on the creator of the tiger and the poet wonders how its possible for the creator to handle creating such a vicious creature

Question 12

Stars threw down their spears

Answer 12

Personification –> Accentuates how the stars cried when they first perceived the tiger’s beauty when it was first created

Question 13

And water’d heaven

Answer 13

Celestial Language –> Shows how momentous this occasion is - the creation of the tiger is extremely influential

Question 14

Did he smile his work to see?

Answer 14

Rhetorical Question –> He wonders if God was proud of his creation by using 3rd person pronoun

Question 15

who made the Lamb?

Answer 15

Lamb shows sharp contrast –> Poet can’t comprehend how God could create such a meek creature

Question 16

How is this poem written? Is there a rhyme scheme?

Answer 16

The poem’s written in 6 quatrains in rhyming couplets with 7 syllables which makes the rhyme scheme more powerful

Question 17

What meter is this poem written in? Why?

Answer 17

Trochaic tetrameter which accentuates a nursery rhyme which contrasts with the complexity of life or the blacksmith’s hammering

Question 18

What structure does this poem have?

Answer 18

Cyclical Structure - The final stanza’s (Dare frame thy fearful symmetry) repeated to reinforce how impressed the narrator is at God’s creation and how God dared to create the tinger which is emphasised to be such a fearsome creature

Question 19

What is the common theme shown in this poem? What might the tiger be a metaphor for?

Answer 19

The poem has a common theme of the tiger being a metaphor for mankind; the juxtaposition between the beauty of a lamb and the terrors of mankind