the tyger

The Tyger

This poem is written by William Blake . From the title he lets us know that the poem is about and make us ask questions about the tyger. He describes the tiger as a powerful and fast animal . The rhyme scheme in this poem are six quatrains of rhyming couplets (aabb) with almost trochaic rhythm .

Lines 1-2 : It begins with the repetition of the name ("Tyger, tyger") The repetition creates a chant-like mood to the whole poem . it's also an example of synecdoche, a literary device used when a part represents the whole or the whole represents a part. "Burning bright" may describe the look of the Tyger ( his color ) , or it may describe a kind of energy or power that this Tyger has. The Tyger's presence in "the forests of the night" give us increases the mystery and power of the creature.

Lines 3-4: The "immortal hand or eye," symbols of sight and creation, immediately conjure references to a creative God. To "frame," here, is probably to contain, kind of like putting a picture in a frame. When you frame something, the boundaries are clear, the object isn't going anywhere. "Fearful symmetry," is a very nuanced quality to have. "Fearful" references the scariness of a tiger, but also alludes to the sublime. The sublime is an old notion of really big, powerful, mysterious stuff that terrifies us because it's big, powerful and mysterious. The first BIG example that should come to mind: God, or the divine (that stuff is big and powerful and mysterious).

Lines 5-6 : These lines ask where the Tyger was created, and also add to the growing image the reader has of the Tyger. The use of "distant deeps or skies" seems...