William Blake's "the Tiger".

Essay by inasunnydazeCollege, Undergraduate July 2003

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The poem The Tiger, by the poet William Blake, is about the making of the tiger. William Blake was born in London in 1757 and died 1827. He was apprenticed to an engraver, but then he went into art and literature. When he was little he saw visions of God and angels. He wrote Poetical Sketches, which was a series of poems. He also wrote Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The tone of the poem is anger. There are many parts of the poem that reflect this anger. One of them is in the line 19 "Did he smile his work to see?" because he is angry that someone can make such an animal and be happy about it. In addition, he is angry that the tiger, which is evil and ferocious and the lamb, which is nice and innocent are both on the same Earth, this shows that the tone of the poem is anger.

Theme is the central idea of the poem, one of themes in The Tiger is that God creates both bad and good and we should understand both. The tiger symbolizes the savage and untamed forces in the world, while the lamb symbolizes the innocent and natural forces of the world. Line 20 "Did he who made the lamb make thee?", is stating that since God made the lamb he probably made the tiger too. Good and bad and Another theme is found when comparing the lamb and the tiger. The lamb represents good and the tiger represents the bad. The lamb is very natural, while in contrast the tiger is very mechanical. Lines 13-15 "What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp" represents the making of the mechanicalness of the...