Dear Sir, I enjoyed your brief discussion of William Blake's poem "Tiger" and particularly the sound of "eye" (long e) to rhyme with symmetry (long e). This is how Blake and his contemporaries would have pronounced these words? I must disagree on one point you make however regarding what Blake is "asking us to do." IF he's asking anything he's not asking us what the Tiger "represents" as you say but rather who (or what) created the Tiger: "What immortal hand or eye"? The Tiger is the artwork.
blake certainly felt himself a gentle and vulnerable as a man in an extremely cut-throat society that he never fully engaged with. to my mind he may be identifying the lamb with himself; he was from a poor and ideological family, and he died in poverty without ever having really left the station from where he came, so i might never have developed the confidence to meet life an equal footing.
the way you present the video is awkward, also the point you are making sounds strange because of the way you are telling it, but it has helped me in my research of this poem
What happened to katiegreenaway? I'd love to see her art!
P.S. The "Lamb" is clearly a reference to the Lamb of God, as well as to the gentle lamb in Blake's own poem, The Lamb. But that doesn't mean the tyger is evil - just fearful.
This is a misunderstood reading . I'm sure that blake did not consider god like this . It's about revolution, and individual freedom and siezing power - hence the prometheus allusion, it represtentes the french revolution which as we know ended dissapointingly (for the romantics) in terror - and the tyger was often used as a metaphor for this in the british press. scholars ( see Alfred Kazin).
Blake would have hated how some Christiand twist his genius to fit their own ideology..
My take, is Blake wondering how there, is such a difference in everything. He uses God as an artist, so I think the tiger made him wonder, how God made, Christ his son, and also make the evil people, to devour him. He was so brilliant and beautiful gentle lamb of God. Then after his death, he cried, read the Biblical verses about the moment Christ gave up the ghost. He is in heaven and his son such a beautifully perfect innocent lamb gave his all for the tiger's in the world... My take.
I think the tyger is another analogy for man. Man was once free unitil he traped himself by his own "mind forg'd manacles" of society and opression. Similar to nature being bought , sold exploited and rationalised.
. . . rather, what kind of God would create seemingly polar opposites? Blake is really talking about the Nature of God, of Man . . . what is our true capacity? For love & violence? The Tyger is really a question of universal identity . . . & this tied in with Blake's mythology, his philosophies on the nature of sensual existence & the imagination . . . this is a very complex, almost scientific attempt at understanding the nature of God.
The Answer is simple. Blake is contrasting the two juxtaposed natures of God. The Lamb or Christ as Savior and Tiger or Christ as Judge. Jesus is both Savior and Judge, Both Lamb and Lion or in this case Tiger. Blake was saying that every man will face Christ at Judgment and that will see him as a loving Lamb or a Deadly Tiger.
Hey does anyone know what this Blake Feyerabend hypothesis is about? Has it got something to do with William Blake? Why is there so much controversy over it?
Really? I've been taught that the "Tyger", was not actually a "Tiger", as in the animal we are all familiar with from nature programs, but rather a vision of a scary, strange, other wordly creature, with claws and fangs that Blake had while in his room one night. Yes, I believe that the creature revealed itself to Blake. The only thing comperable to it apparently was a Tiger.
I've just finished reading the white tiger by aravind adiga; now i know why he chose the white tiger as the figuration for his book on the symmetries of India. I love poetry
"When the stars threw down their spears, And water'd heaven with their tears, Did He smile His work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee? " Notice..."Did He who made the lamb make thee? " Also the other part of this poem..."The Lamb" "Little Lamb who made thee Dost thou know who made thee Little Lamb I'll tell thee, He is called by thy name, For he calls himself a Lamb: He is meek & mild, He became a little child: I a child & thou a lamb, We are called by his name. "
Interesting but one thing is wrong - you made a mistake reading the last line of the poem: DARE frame thy fearful symmetry... And are you sure that your pronunciation of EYE (like EEE) is possible?
P.S. Yes I keep on with the art, & making things. I'd like to go & get another degree in Eng Lit. too. I love writing, and go at about 100 m.p.h. I've got the art & literary gene from my Dad. (who was an artist & a draper (like W.B.'s Pa). I'm very torn between the two, and try to combine them. Been trying to think of that line about (um) Seeing infinity in a grain of sand. By the way, you're NOT elderly! You can't get away with that one. Katie x
Of course when it comes to wormy night-flying things that go round boring holes into roses, it's a different kettle of fish. That one's most definitely about corruption. Don't be so sensitive,- just discusion!
Glad you liked the dragon! It's just that Will B. & I are mates & of a single mind, so I thought I ought to tell you what he told me about what he was thinking when he wrote that. poem! Me & Mr Blake agree on most things, (school, vegetarianism) & have interests in common. Writing, art, good v evil, printing etc. It's the 'fearful' word that trip modern men up here. Different meaning. Don't be offended, I just know precisely what he meant. Have you blocked me? Katie x
You're not blocked yet because of your wonderful dragon--Blake was a marvelous graphics artists as well.. I'm not surprised you have communicted with Blake. I believe he thought he saw God looking in through the window when he was a child. Also I believe you're quite right on fearful. It is fearful not fearsome. Yu should post some of your W.B. inspired work. The invisible worm that flies in the night? But then it is invisible. At any rate, more art.
at 6 or 7, also 'A child's Garden of Verse" R.L.S. and nonsense poems by Lear, Carrol & things like Strewel Peter. I loved the Blake most. I think he saw angels in a rose bush. I once saw diamonds in a rose bush, and a man with a bowler hat walking past outside my upper storey bedroom as a child. Pretty certain it wasn't God. Re: the literary stuff, I was about 6 when my Mum caught me reading "As you like It".
cont:: "As you like It". She didn't believe I could understand it & asked what it was about. I remember saying it ws about women dressing up as men. She'd not read it, so didn't know.
I don't think he used the tiger as an allegory for experience or corruption. He's summing up the magnificence of a tiger. Man can't compete in the creation of such beauty.
Sorry, I beg to differ. This poem is about the fearful beauty of the tiger, not saying it is frightening, (in an evil sense). As an artist, I can imagine these were his thoughts as he tried to paint one. It's true! It's a challenge, impossible for man. Who could recreate a tiger, so magnificently ravishing. By 'fearful', he means awesome. Only God or nature could create anything so magnificent. By making a comparison to a lamb, he is saying how different the two are, yet part of one world.
also i was thinking of using this poem in an allagorical sense, with the juxtoposition of the innocent lamb with the experienced tiger, it could be seen as an allagory of songs of innocence and eperience as a whole? any thoughts, before i right it in my exam?!?!?!
hi. i found your social and historical context very usful, so thank you. im currently analysing this poem, and i think that this poem is a clear example of blakes dislike towards the augustan style of logically working your way towards god. this poem is exprssing the universality and sheer range of gods abilty. the idea that this god can create something so delicate and pure as the lamb, and yet can also create something so ferocious and experienced as the tiger? what do you think?
Kind of made me think of how the same God created the Lamb (Christ) also created the Tyger (Lucifer) of whom was a fallen angel. Kind of similar to where you were going. :)
I have just finsihed a short film inspired by Blake's Heaven and Hell. Click my ID to watch a trailer. Next we want to do Tyger Tyger - But I want to set it in the context of current issues - i.e, taking into account the fact that they're endangered. Any ideas?
Mr Blake is a Lamb and a 'Mental Tyger'. It's amazing to find an artist so fierce and gentle. I've often wondered how his 'accent/ voice' would sound. Simple 'readings' of his Songs usually lack 'spirit'. The poet Ed Sanders (of the Fugs) has recorded some wonderful 'renditions' of Blake throughout his career. Allen Ginsberg tried and imo 'bombed'. Peter Brown recorded an entire album, well done yet he's somewhat disowned it. This is an enjoyable and informative lecture. thanks
Well, we talked about it on class. And it is rather obvious in a sense.. making several references (anvil, furnace etc.) to industrialism at that time. I mean..industrialism was rising in England and many people frightened it... hence the romanticism (escape to nature) in the beginning of the 19th century.
And also the fact that the Tyger is in the forest of the night.. standing out from the surroundings... like man-made creations stand out in nature. The distinction between culture and nature.
I found this video extremely helpful. I've been getting really frustrated trying to come up with ideas and now I've seen a bunch of them validated, so thanks!
I really think that people like yourself doing things like this contributes a great deal to society...thanks for the information and stimulation of thought.
You captured the poem perfectly.Blake was a phenomenal poet and man,his descrption of the ferociously, terrifyingly beautiful tiger is an unsurpassed joy all these aeons later.
That was brilliant! I LOVE poetry and it's great to hear a tutor talking on this subject. I am just totally into this kind of cosmic literature... orgasms for the witts.
I always assume that Blake used the Tyger as a metaphor for the negative exploitive and almost evil elements of society during the INdustrial Revolution - facotry owners, etc. In essence, the dark side and greed etc bred by a capitalist state, and this selfishness and callousness shocked Blake, but with being shocked by it, as he was by the ferociouness and power of the Tyger, he was also inpsired and awed by it.
The Tyger in this poem, I believe, stands for evil. The same God Who made good, also made evil. This is the dilemma of Blake. It is interesting that he uses "the lamb" as a contrast. The lamb is also a symbol of Jesus Christ, (the sacrificial lamb) who died for the sins (evil) of the entire world. I do not know if this was Blake's intent, but it is interesting nonetheless.
Read Northrop Frye's 'Fearful Symmetry'. The Tyger and the lamb are two opposing states, neither of which is evil or good in the traditional sense. The tyger is active, energetic, the lamb - meek and passive. Both are necessary. However, the lamb is associated with Christ whilst the tyger with the devil. It is a subversion of the Enlightenment desire to dichotomize; polarizing pairs in order to show how they are both required.
what the tyger meant to blake, and what he intended it to mean certainly can't be summed up by any quick dissertation. To try is almost insultingly futile. The tyger is a symbol that may only realistically be explored at increasing depths to uncover all that may be found within it
Yes agree. I had a 'Reading Blake' seminar this term in my second year Eng. Lit. course. We worked from our copies of 'The Complete Illuminated Works' and it was such an amazing experience. So much depth, so many aspects and levels. I love his works because he gives meaning to his mythology but also you can find your own complete interpretation. His works make you think, they make you want to think and explore, comment, speculate and rethink. The scholarly value of his works seem limitless.
the ending stanza is not exactly the same as the beginning. Its "what immortal had or eye DARE frame thy fearful symmetry." The word "dare" in that context is so significant. It's almost as if Blake challenges God, himself, with the purpose of his new creation.
Well said xheyitssam, the context of stanzas 1 and 6 are entirely different. Blake loved to crate great emphasis using very subtle influences. Also the majority is in trochaic tetrameter except most notably lines 4, 20, and 24, which are eight-syllable lines of iambic tetrameter. The metre in these excepted lines can allow for unconventional rhyming with a lot more ease than people usually credit.
you dont want to see one get over the chicken wire when your in the zoo. safely say its as much use to you as a plane with a seatbelt.going down. great poem.
That was a wonderful lecture, short and to the point and interesting to understand the poem in a way I'd never thought of before. Thank you soooooooooooooooooooooooo much for sharng this. :-) 5/5 from me
possibly you have neglected to mention it or maybe not...but the "tiger" its self to me seems irrelavant when one looks at it on its own. its quite obvious the tiger is a metaphor for humans.. the tiger paints the picture of the duality of humans.
Wow, that was great. I found this poem by watching the Brazilian short film based on it. Just look for tyger if you haven't seen it already. It's so great to see something of real intellectual substance on youtube! Hope you keep posting, I'm sure you'll get tons of viewers if you keep posting stuff this good. Thanks!!!
Dear Sir, I enjoyed your brief discussion of William Blake's poem "Tiger" and particularly the sound of "eye" (long e) to rhyme with symmetry (long e). This is how Blake and his contemporaries would have pronounced these words? I must disagree on one point you make however regarding what Blake is "asking us to do." IF he's asking anything he's not asking us what the Tiger "represents" as you say but rather who (or what) created the Tiger: "What immortal hand or eye"? The Tiger is the artwork.
tensforme 1 week ago
blake certainly felt himself a gentle and vulnerable as a man in an extremely cut-throat society that he never fully engaged with. to my mind he may be identifying the lamb with himself; he was from a poor and ideological family, and he died in poverty without ever having really left the station from where he came, so i might never have developed the confidence to meet life an equal footing.
verykhan 2 months ago
Thanks for sharing... a very informative video about WB.. :)
iampeeay01 2 months ago
"eye" and "symmetery" aren't meant to rhyme, Blake is making a point about the untameable nature of the tyger and the human imagination.
TheJackbeeston 2 months ago
the way you present the video is awkward, also the point you are making sounds strange because of the way you are telling it, but it has helped me in my research of this poem
n1ghtsaber 4 months ago
What happened to katiegreenaway? I'd love to see her art!
P.S. The "Lamb" is clearly a reference to the Lamb of God, as well as to the gentle lamb in Blake's own poem, The Lamb. But that doesn't mean the tyger is evil - just fearful.
LittleDragon2000 5 months ago
a farm for man.
duncangray2011 5 months ago
This is a misunderstood reading . I'm sure that blake did not consider god like this . It's about revolution, and individual freedom and siezing power - hence the prometheus allusion, it represtentes the french revolution which as we know ended dissapointingly (for the romantics) in terror - and the tyger was often used as a metaphor for this in the british press. scholars ( see Alfred Kazin).
Blake would have hated how some Christiand twist his genius to fit their own ideology..
leewilk100 7 months ago
@leewilk100 I totally agree and he was also taking it further - to represent India itself.
SapphireM 4 months ago
i just made a project on this poem! i love it! I posted my vid on youtube :)
YAMANvlogs 9 months ago
I agree with asmodeus585
sarahreded 10 months ago
it ends with what immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry
INTERPOLFAN17 11 months ago
My take, is Blake wondering how there, is such a difference in everything. He uses God as an artist, so I think the tiger made him wonder, how God made, Christ his son, and also make the evil people, to devour him. He was so brilliant and beautiful gentle lamb of God. Then after his death, he cried, read the Biblical verses about the moment Christ gave up the ghost. He is in heaven and his son such a beautifully perfect innocent lamb gave his all for the tiger's in the world... My take.
2meheavensentmusic 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
is there a moral to this poem?
can you respond to this ASAP please
thank you :)
iRapeDeadBabiess 1 year ago
is there a moral to this poem?
can you respond to this ASAP please
thank you :)
iRapeDeadBabiess 1 year ago
I think the tyger is another analogy for man. Man was once free unitil he traped himself by his own "mind forg'd manacles" of society and opression. Similar to nature being bought , sold exploited and rationalised.
reeperoftorture 1 year ago
. . . rather, what kind of God would create seemingly polar opposites? Blake is really talking about the Nature of God, of Man . . . what is our true capacity? For love & violence? The Tyger is really a question of universal identity . . . & this tied in with Blake's mythology, his philosophies on the nature of sensual existence & the imagination . . . this is a very complex, almost scientific attempt at understanding the nature of God.
cheapfeet 1 year ago
The Answer is simple. Blake is contrasting the two juxtaposed natures of God. The Lamb or Christ as Savior and Tiger or Christ as Judge. Jesus is both Savior and Judge, Both Lamb and Lion or in this case Tiger. Blake was saying that every man will face Christ at Judgment and that will see him as a loving Lamb or a Deadly Tiger.
rickswartzentrover 1 year ago
I wonder what Blake would have to say about DNA sequencing.
WorthyTraitor 1 year ago
I really liked this. Thanks
axlrose9951 1 year ago
The tyger represents the infidel...
shintosungod 1 year ago
Hey does anyone know what this Blake Feyerabend hypothesis is about? Has it got something to do with William Blake? Why is there so much controversy over it?
ataraxia7557 1 year ago
Really? I've been taught that the "Tyger", was not actually a "Tiger", as in the animal we are all familiar with from nature programs, but rather a vision of a scary, strange, other wordly creature, with claws and fangs that Blake had while in his room one night. Yes, I believe that the creature revealed itself to Blake. The only thing comperable to it apparently was a Tiger.
Khalsabychoice 1 year ago
thank you
empyblessing 1 year ago
I've just finished reading the white tiger by aravind adiga; now i know why he chose the white tiger as the figuration for his book on the symmetries of India. I love poetry
vinnywinnies 1 year ago
evan12345a 1 year ago
Everything William Blake wrote or painted was with mystic or gnostic intent...
"The tyger" Is no different...
Notice..."What distant deeps or skies"
"On what wings did he aspire?"
"WHAT the hand DARE cease the fire."
"What SHOULDER what ART"
"What dread hand, what dread feet."
"What immortal hand or eye"
Is blake describing the demiurge?
'The one who dwells in flaming fire?'
evan12345a 1 year ago
I love to understand and learn how much and how deep we can go into an artist mind just in a few lines. Beautiful.Thanks for share.
crystalship42 2 years ago
The tyger represents the French revolution.
themashby 2 years ago
thats debatable
bakinblack1 2 years ago
Interesting but one thing is wrong - you made a mistake reading the last line of the poem: DARE frame thy fearful symmetry... And are you sure that your pronunciation of EYE (like EEE) is possible?
dmitrinsmirnov 2 years ago
Comment removed
dmitrinsmirnov 2 years ago
P.S. Yes I keep on with the art, & making things. I'd like to go & get another degree in Eng Lit. too. I love writing, and go at about 100 m.p.h. I've got the art & literary gene from my Dad. (who was an artist & a draper (like W.B.'s Pa). I'm very torn between the two, and try to combine them. Been trying to think of that line about (um) Seeing infinity in a grain of sand. By the way, you're NOT elderly! You can't get away with that one. Katie x
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
Here is a pictorial representation of an invisible worm.:
Unless the type closes up, it's pretty accurate I'd say.
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
Of course when it comes to wormy night-flying things that go round boring holes into roses, it's a different kettle of fish. That one's most definitely about corruption. Don't be so sensitive,- just discusion!
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
Glad you liked the dragon! It's just that Will B. & I are mates & of a single mind, so I thought I ought to tell you what he told me about what he was thinking when he wrote that. poem! Me & Mr Blake agree on most things, (school, vegetarianism) & have interests in common. Writing, art, good v evil, printing etc. It's the 'fearful' word that trip modern men up here. Different meaning. Don't be offended, I just know precisely what he meant. Have you blocked me? Katie x
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
You're not blocked yet because of your wonderful dragon--Blake was a marvelous graphics artists as well.. I'm not surprised you have communicted with Blake. I believe he thought he saw God looking in through the window when he was a child. Also I believe you're quite right on fearful. It is fearful not fearsome. Yu should post some of your W.B. inspired work. The invisible worm that flies in the night? But then it is invisible. At any rate, more art.
stacyhm 2 years ago
I was reading by 4. I got given 'Songs of..."
at 6 or 7, also 'A child's Garden of Verse" R.L.S. and nonsense poems by Lear, Carrol & things like Strewel Peter. I loved the Blake most. I think he saw angels in a rose bush. I once saw diamonds in a rose bush, and a man with a bowler hat walking past outside my upper storey bedroom as a child. Pretty certain it wasn't God. Re: the literary stuff, I was about 6 when my Mum caught me reading "As you like It".
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
cont:: "As you like It". She didn't believe I could understand it & asked what it was about. I remember saying it ws about women dressing up as men. She'd not read it, so didn't know.
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
@katiegreenaway Satan
InfoRoom 1 year ago
P.S. I'm amazed, (fearfully) that so many people, can misinterpret a poem written with such clear meaning!
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
I don't think he used the tiger as an allegory for experience or corruption. He's summing up the magnificence of a tiger. Man can't compete in the creation of such beauty.
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
Sorry, I beg to differ. This poem is about the fearful beauty of the tiger, not saying it is frightening, (in an evil sense). As an artist, I can imagine these were his thoughts as he tried to paint one. It's true! It's a challenge, impossible for man. Who could recreate a tiger, so magnificently ravishing. By 'fearful', he means awesome. Only God or nature could create anything so magnificent. By making a comparison to a lamb, he is saying how different the two are, yet part of one world.
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
the peom is fearful.
we only see this burning tiger in the zoo.
there was film i went to see when a child.
In serch of the cartsaways.
i think it was John Mills and his daughter
a tiger walked past them i was scared and the peom still bring this to me now
fuckthissignoncrap 2 years ago
sorry it was a leopard. still sacry dont you agree
fuckthissignoncrap 2 years ago
a very interesting explanation of a poem!
18jela89 2 years ago
interesting.
stepdecke22 2 years ago
love it!! it really help me for my literature exam!!
thank you!!!!!!
paulitandrea 2 years ago
could it be that the "symmetry" blake refers to is actually a hint to the lamb as the opposite yet complementary creature to the tiger itself
pierlooqup 2 years ago 2
pierlooqup By symmetry, Blake literally means symmetry. Look at the markings on a tiger. Fearful symmetry.= unbelievable symmetry.
katiegreenaway 2 years ago
also i was thinking of using this poem in an allagorical sense, with the juxtoposition of the innocent lamb with the experienced tiger, it could be seen as an allagory of songs of innocence and eperience as a whole? any thoughts, before i right it in my exam?!?!?!
doddi13 2 years ago
How did the exam go? :)
thestitchedimage 2 years ago
results still pending, but i think it went alright! we had to write a comparative essay between blake and betjeman!
doddi13 2 years ago
hi. i found your social and historical context very usful, so thank you. im currently analysing this poem, and i think that this poem is a clear example of blakes dislike towards the augustan style of logically working your way towards god. this poem is exprssing the universality and sheer range of gods abilty. the idea that this god can create something so delicate and pure as the lamb, and yet can also create something so ferocious and experienced as the tiger? what do you think?
doddi13 2 years ago 3
Kind of made me think of how the same God created the Lamb (Christ) also created the Tyger (Lucifer) of whom was a fallen angel. Kind of similar to where you were going. :)
thestitchedimage 2 years ago
I have just finsihed a short film inspired by Blake's Heaven and Hell. Click my ID to watch a trailer. Next we want to do Tyger Tyger - But I want to set it in the context of current issues - i.e, taking into account the fact that they're endangered. Any ideas?
flashgunfilms 2 years ago
Thanks! you just got my Homework DONE!!
AcuteSenses 2 years ago 3
great synopsis.
mandibulsara 2 years ago 2
termikesmike 2 years ago 2
I memorized this poem last night, its so beautiful!
misMITU 2 years ago
Thank you for this video, it really helped me a lot.
f1freek321 3 years ago
thank you for this I'm taking the IB oral commentary tomorrow.
pioli12 3 years ago
thanks for making GREAT content readily available!
AndyRiotRed 3 years ago 2
thanks
DaNO0O0 3 years ago 2
Well, we talked about it on class. And it is rather obvious in a sense.. making several references (anvil, furnace etc.) to industrialism at that time. I mean..industrialism was rising in England and many people frightened it... hence the romanticism (escape to nature) in the beginning of the 19th century.
And also the fact that the Tyger is in the forest of the night.. standing out from the surroundings... like man-made creations stand out in nature. The distinction between culture and nature.
DiabloPlayer4life 3 years ago
This was very informative and helpful. Thanks and keep up the good work!
aaacacaas 3 years ago
I like his Blake impression :p raised my eyebrow.
CAWpatch 3 years ago
o really nice!
mattia neri
pozzi0 3 years ago
Thanks so much for opening my brain...I mean eyes! :-)
ondverg 3 years ago
I found this video extremely helpful. I've been getting really frustrated trying to come up with ideas and now I've seen a bunch of them validated, so thanks!
1snorkel2345 3 years ago
Very nice. Thanks for the short lecture, very succinct and well put!
asparkles98 3 years ago
I really think that people like yourself doing things like this contributes a great deal to society...thanks for the information and stimulation of thought.
catgumart 3 years ago
are ya sure the tower was used to house animals? i thought we have has london zoo for some considerable time!
hartnell114 3 years ago
Thanks for your remark. In fact, the information on Blake, the Tiger and the Tower of London was taken from the history pages of the London Zoo site.
stacyhm 3 years ago
You captured the poem perfectly.Blake was a phenomenal poet and man,his descrption of the ferociously, terrifyingly beautiful tiger is an unsurpassed joy all these aeons later.
brassman72 3 years ago
That was brilliant! I LOVE poetry and it's great to hear a tutor talking on this subject. I am just totally into this kind of cosmic literature... orgasms for the witts.
JimMorrisonsWidow 3 years ago
I always assume that Blake used the Tyger as a metaphor for the negative exploitive and almost evil elements of society during the INdustrial Revolution - facotry owners, etc. In essence, the dark side and greed etc bred by a capitalist state, and this selfishness and callousness shocked Blake, but with being shocked by it, as he was by the ferociouness and power of the Tyger, he was also inpsired and awed by it.
vindaloonarnar 3 years ago 2
was your intention for us to provide you with an answer? lol, because you didn't really say much about the poem that wasn't obvious
thirteenth13 3 years ago
The Tyger in this poem, I believe, stands for evil. The same God Who made good, also made evil. This is the dilemma of Blake. It is interesting that he uses "the lamb" as a contrast. The lamb is also a symbol of Jesus Christ, (the sacrificial lamb) who died for the sins (evil) of the entire world. I do not know if this was Blake's intent, but it is interesting nonetheless.
pegcage 3 years ago 2
The Tyger isn't evil.
Englishdosser86 3 years ago 8
That isn't helpful at all really. Please expand on your point.
kobryn 3 years ago
Read Northrop Frye's 'Fearful Symmetry'. The Tyger and the lamb are two opposing states, neither of which is evil or good in the traditional sense. The tyger is active, energetic, the lamb - meek and passive. Both are necessary. However, the lamb is associated with Christ whilst the tyger with the devil. It is a subversion of the Enlightenment desire to dichotomize; polarizing pairs in order to show how they are both required.
samdathi 3 years ago 3
Lamb could also be a symbol of an ordinary man, as opposed to great tiger-like entrepreneurs, who dare to do anything to seize more money and power.
asmodeus585 2 years ago 6
what the tyger meant to blake, and what he intended it to mean certainly can't be summed up by any quick dissertation. To try is almost insultingly futile. The tyger is a symbol that may only realistically be explored at increasing depths to uncover all that may be found within it
mcblah 3 years ago 3
Yes agree. I had a 'Reading Blake' seminar this term in my second year Eng. Lit. course. We worked from our copies of 'The Complete Illuminated Works' and it was such an amazing experience. So much depth, so many aspects and levels. I love his works because he gives meaning to his mythology but also you can find your own complete interpretation. His works make you think, they make you want to think and explore, comment, speculate and rethink. The scholarly value of his works seem limitless.
dyndan19 3 years ago 2
... it stands for us ... the humans ... it stands for balance ... I know its strange but it reminds me Epicuroses Paradox -.-
Elekias 4 years ago
for more ... youtube:"The Riddle of Epicurus"
Elekias 4 years ago
the ending stanza is not exactly the same as the beginning. Its "what immortal had or eye DARE frame thy fearful symmetry." The word "dare" in that context is so significant. It's almost as if Blake challenges God, himself, with the purpose of his new creation.
xheyitssam 4 years ago
eye within the eye: insight.......humblest obeisances....to err is not to be human, to be an error is to be human
hhhuman 4 years ago
Well said xheyitssam, the context of stanzas 1 and 6 are entirely different. Blake loved to crate great emphasis using very subtle influences. Also the majority is in trochaic tetrameter except most notably lines 4, 20, and 24, which are eight-syllable lines of iambic tetrameter. The metre in these excepted lines can allow for unconventional rhyming with a lot more ease than people usually credit.
BaronFitz 4 years ago
IN the forest? hint? think they run about india?
danbit5 4 years ago
you dont want to see one get over the chicken wire when your in the zoo. safely say its as much use to you as a plane with a seatbelt.going down. great poem.
danbit5 4 years ago
Thank you, your videos are really helpful.
Khempejjer 4 years ago
how dark and deep is forests of night. the hand that grasps is the hand that feeds.
hypnotstcollector 4 years ago
That was a wonderful lecture, short and to the point and interesting to understand the poem in a way I'd never thought of before. Thank you soooooooooooooooooooooooo much for sharng this. :-) 5/5 from me
CardBoardBoxForAHead 4 years ago
possibly you have neglected to mention it or maybe not...but the "tiger" its self to me seems irrelavant when one looks at it on its own. its quite obvious the tiger is a metaphor for humans.. the tiger paints the picture of the duality of humans.
asdfgasfasdfasdf 4 years ago 3
Wow, that was great. I found this poem by watching the Brazilian short film based on it. Just look for tyger if you haven't seen it already. It's so great to see something of real intellectual substance on youtube! Hope you keep posting, I'm sure you'll get tons of viewers if you keep posting stuff this good. Thanks!!!
MarshallRilley 4 years ago