The Tyger By William Blake (short Commentary)

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The Tyger by William Blake

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies, Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare sieze the fire? And what shoulder & what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet? What the hammer? what the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 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? Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Many of us dare not question the authenticity, the perfection, the omniscience or divineness of God, but there are many a people out there that in one form or another seek to quench their thrust of comprehending the age old question: If God is pure, then why so much evil around us. Such is the course of William Blake in his poem “The Tyger” I chose this poem specifically because not only did I see compassion and depth in his words, but I also saw a certain environment that he was trying to create while pondering over the Tyger and its creator.

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He was so emphatically trying to capture the two elements of God that he himself throughout the poem was left astounded by the greatness and unpredictability of God. “What immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry” “And what and what art, could twist the sinews of thy heart” “Did he who made the lamb make thee”

By not being able to comprehend the complexities of God, he leaves the reader thinking about how inept we truly are, for we cannot even fathom the basic concept of “Good and Evil” which the creator paints all over the universe. On one end the creator has presented man with a lamb, and on the other much opposite end we have the deadly terror clasp of the tiger. At first, he questions the might of the creator. Thinking how perfect the creator must be to craft something with so much symmetry. Here, symmetry can be interpreted as either good or evil. As soon as he wraps his first question, he does not hesitate in imagining the nature of God, could it be evil could it be good, the thought provoking question is left for the audience to dwell on. He also sees God as a blacksmith, this is understandable since Blake himself lived in a time where the industrial revolution was about to take place and the environment around him was not yet developed. Just like a blacksmith carefully crafts his work, Blakes sees God too crafting the Tyger in the depths of hell. But that again is left as a question, “What the hammer? what the chain, In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp, Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” Once again showing that man is not capable of understanding the divine power that the Almighty keeps with him. As much of his poem has been engaging the reader on pondering over the creator’s nature, Blake towards the end finally dares to suggest the one notion that many of us shudder at; the concept that God must be cruel in nature altogether to have created something like the Tyger. Mind you, we don’t shudder at thinking that God is cruel because he created the Tyger, but rather if God is cruel in nature. When he says “When the stars threw down their spears

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He is referring to the notion that possibly the heavens might have also shed tears when God created such a ferocious, fearless, flesh eating animal. What we must keep in perspective is that Blake tried to exclusively focus on God’s complexity, infinite knowledge and divine stature. By questioning whether the Lamb and the Tyger have originated from the same creator is not the question here, of course they both descend from the same creator, the bigger question to ask ourselves is have we yet understood what good and evil are? Have we really been able to understand why good and evil, the lamb and the tyger both must exist side by side? Can good ever exist without evil?