The Tyger

             The Tyger is a dark and somber poem holding an almost equally dreary meaning. Blake accomplishes this end through carefully chosen diction, harsh rhyme scheme and alliteration. With a closer look at the first two and last stanzas of this poem many of the more subtle points of this work become evident and a much clearer interpretation of this multifaceted poem comes to light. With every word Blake strives towards his main theme, who or what would create an evil.
             Alliteration plays a big part in the first stanza to establish much of the desired mood. The whole first line of the poem has an almost unholy ritualistic feel to it, shouting the same word twice to start a poem gives it a chant-like feel. The harsh clanging of the syllables creates the aura of drums beating. The rhymes he uses here continue to establish this tone. Rhyming eye with symmetry is harsh sounding and ugly.. The connection between asking the rhetorical question of who would create the terrible tiger as he himself creates a terrible sounding first stanza is intentional.
             The words he chooses in the opening stanza work to achieve his desired meaning in much the same way as the way they sound. The choice of the words burning and bright describe the tiger as unnatural and almost unholy amidst the dark forest. In the next line he uses the words hand and eye as the creator's tools in creating the tiger's image. The hand stands for the apparatus that did the work, while the eye stands for the foresight that was used. The word symmetry is used to describe something in perfect balance or harmony, and by describing the tiger as having fearful symmetry means that the tiger has every quality to instill fear and terror perfectly aligned. Combined these two lines ask how could a godlike figure with the power of foresight create a being perfect for terror and evil?
             In the second stanza Blake does much the same in regards to carefully handpic...

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The Tyger. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 01:54, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/91671.html