(The Tyger by William Blake)To start off I would like to say that I absolutely love William Blake's writing. I took a British Lit class 2 semesters ago and we spent a good amount of time on all these stories. So, while reading them it was really hard not to read into the context that we read into. When I read William Blake all I can think about is the powers of God and how that is pretty much what Blake wrote about and these stories reflect them. They are very religious. I will discuss these a little in that context because it is pretty much all I can think about when I read these stories.
Let's start off with The Tyger which I posted above. Blake loved matching his poems with artwork that he either drew or had drawn so people could see the representation between poetry and art. I absolutely love this poem. The beginning stanza will strike what the poem will be about and ask biggest question in the poem, "What immortal hang or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry" (Blake, 358)? Blake is trying to get the reader to understand that nature must some how reflect its creature much like art. The tiger is a beautiful and terrifying creature all rolled into one and Blake wants the reader to question why a "God" would create such a terrifying creature. As Blake goes on to describe the tiger, he describes him as a nice subtle creature the tiger is and we get the sense that from a glance the tiger is not an evil creature and that God created this creature because of its beauty and elegance. The "forging" of the tiger envokes a smithy theme to the creature that draws us to read that only a supreme being could create such a creature. But my favorite line comes from a part that draws a parallel between
the poem "The Tyger" and "The Lamb". "Did He who made the lamb make thee" (Blake, 358)? If you have read "The Lamb" you can see that Blake lvoes the lamb and can not wait to tell him who created him for the pleasure of being a loving caring creature. Blake is asking how can a God create something so nice and also create something so terrifying at the same time. This showed the cross between the Songs of Innocence, which "The Lamb" was in, and the Songs of Experience, which "The Tiger" was in. Blake often put 2 poems in his songs to show a seperation between them and then link back to them in the actual poem. As you can see "The Tiger" story is filled with unanswered questions which leave the reader perplexed and shows a complexity of the tiger.You know maybe Blake had a point about the tiger being an aggressive being and how could a "God" create such a being that could kill just for the heck of it. Though, now that I just wrote that, some humans kill just for the heck of it...kind of ironic I guess. In
the story "The Tiger is God", this man was attacked and killed at the Houston Zoo and he was killed out of no where by a tiger. Tiger attacks are very vicious and definitely a terrifying thing to see if you have ever looked it up on YouTube. Though considering the outrageous event of the story, one part caught my thought process.
"Tipu Sultan's imperial banner had borne the words 'The Tiger is God.' Looking up into Miguel's yellow eyes I felt the strange appropriateness of those words. The tiger was majestic and unknowable, a beast of such seeming invulnerability that it was possible to believe that he alone had called the world into being, and that a given life could end at his whim" (Harrington, 360).
This just kind of made me step back and wonder the almighty power of the tiger. The sheer strangth and power a tiger has and the gorgeous look about him. What if this great animal that is known for power and strength, what if it created all that is around us and could possibly take it all down with one swipe? That would be a turn of events. But it is very interesting to think on the different levels that everyone thinks on.
(Tiger God, Google Images)