Here’s a full breakdown of the ideas in ‘The Tyger’ by Wiliam Blake, tailored towards GCSE / IGCSE students but also useful for those studying at a higher level. Enjoy!
Includes:
THE POEM
VOCABULARY
STORY
SPEAKER/VOICE
LANGUAGE
STRUCTURE/FORM
ATTITUDES
CONTEXT
THEMES
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 seize 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?
, VOCABULARY
Immortal - living forever
Thy - your
Frame - to put a frame around, in this case to bring into being / make solid
Symmetry - when something has perfectly equal or mirrored parts
Sinew - the tough connecting tissue
Thee - you
Thine - your (yes, there are lots of words that mean ‘you’ or ‘your’!)
STORY/SUMMARY
The speaker is talking directly to the tiger, although he is afraid of him he asks an
important question - what kind of God could dare to make something so beautiful,
powerful and terrifying? We could say that he feels the tiger is sublime (causing the
feelings of respect and fear because it is beautiful but terrifying at the same time). In
Stanza 2, he asks if the God that made him plucked fire from the skies or deepest parts
of the ocean to make the tiger. In Stanza 3, he says it is a work of art the way in which
his muscles (‘sinews’) and heart have been created. Stanza 4 imagines the tiger being
crafted in a smithy, envisioning the God as a blacksmith who shapes and crafts his
animals using fire and tools. In Stanza 5, the speaker says the stars must have cried at
the tiger’s beauty when he was first made, and he wonders if the God himself smiled
and was proud. He finds it hard to understand how the same God that made a lamb
could make a tiger. Finally, the last stanza repeats the ideas of the first, being
impressed at how this God dared to make the tiger.
SPEAKER/VOICE
The speaker of the poem, who is likely Blake himself, is talking directly to the tiger,
asking the question of how he was created. He is in awe of the tiger’s beauty, but also
quite afraid of his power and ferociousness. His appreciation for the tiger extends even
further into an appreciation for the God who made him - he is impressed that he had
the vision and imagination to create something so complex and yet symmetrical (tigers
don’t actually have symmetrical patterning, but it does seem that way when you look
at them!).
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