The Tyger

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1794

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Contrasting Images

One of the most striking contrasts in Blake’s “The Tyger” is the speaker’s awe and fear of the tiger. Even though the speaker repeatedly describes the tiger as terrifying and frightening, it cannot be denied that the tiger is also beautiful and majestic: “In what distant deeps or skies / Burnt the fire of thine eyes?” (Lines 5-6). The speaker describes the craftsmanship and artistry required for the creation of the tiger: “And what shoulder, & what art, / Could twist the sinews of thy heart?” (Lines 9-10). The speaker is confronting the reality that something can be both terrifying and beautiful at once. The speaker’s suggestion that the fires in the tiger’s eyes were made in some otherworldly land implies that there is something about the tiger that is also mystical. The speaker is attempting to resolve this tension, acknowledging that the tiger is beautiful and even magical.

However, the tiger is also frightening, and this makes it difficult for the speaker to accept that God could have been the creator: “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (Line 20). The speaker’s bewilderment inspires a series of questions: The tiger is a formidable predator, capable of great violence and raw power; if God was the creator, what does that say about God? How can God’s creations be both beautiful and terrifying? How can God be both beautiful and terrifying? These are the mysteries of life, and they are universal to all living beings. No one has the answers. For the speaker, the mystery itself, the unresolvable nature of good versus evil, darkness versus light, innocence versus violence, is evidence of God’s divine presence. The speaker venerates the darkness just as deeply as he fears it.

Creation

The divine act of creation, the making of art, is a main theme of the poem. The speaker views God as an artist or a smith, refining and perfecting his creations. There is no doubt that the speaker has a deep respect for God as a creator and as an artist, and he routinely acknowledges the deliberate nature of God’s artistic process. The speaker asks questions about that artistic process: “What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” (Lines 3-4), imagining and exploring God’s intentions in the making of the tiger. The speaker even goes so far as to try to imagine God himself, the artist of the tiger, as a winged being: “On what wings dare he aspire?” (Line 7), swept up in his own imagination about creativity. He imagines God forging the tiger in the same way as the industrial workers of the period would have forged metal: “What the hammer? what the chain, / In what furnace was thy brain?” (Lines 13-14). The speaker imagines the creative process almost as violent as the tiger itself, made in glowing hot furnaces with heavy and aggressive tools like the chain and the hammer. The furnace could even refer to the fires of hell, as the speaker is in genuine awe of the creator’s capacity to make such a terrifying creature. The speaker both demonstrates and proposes that imagination can be a terrifying and dangerous tool depending on “What dread hand? & what dread feet?” (Line 12) are doing the creating.

The Physical Body

The speaker pays close attention to the physical body, both of the tiger and of God as its creator. This is interesting considering the poem’s focus on the intangible, unanswerable, philosophical questions about existence. This is not only another example of a contrasting image or idea, but it also represents the speaker’s imaginative character. The speaker asks specific questions about the physical body of the creator: “And what shoulder, & what art, / Could twist the sinews of thy heart?” (Lines 9-10). The speaker continues, “And when thy heart began to beat, / What dread hand? & what dread feet?” (Line 12). In the speaker’s creative imagination, God has hands, feet, and a body with strong shoulders capable of twisting the tiger’s muscular body into shape. The speaker is addressing God’s agency, reinforcing that the tiger’s creation was no accident. In the speaker’s mind, the physical body of God created the tiger on purpose. This action of creation was so deliberate, the speaker even wonders whether he smiled when he was finally finished: “Did he smile his work to see?” (Line 19). Because the speaker gives human attributes to God, like hands, feet, shoulders, and a smile, this allows the speaker to hold God accountable for and give meaning to the violence of his creations. If God made both the tiger and the lamb, then maybe the tiger is not a wholly evil creature, and maybe evil is a part of the divine.