As the poem progresses, Blake uses the metaphor of fire to demonstrate the way the tiger sees, and its vision. The “distant deeps or skies” refers to the heaven or hell, in which Blake ponders and assumes where the terrifying fire in the tiger’s eyes come from. The poet cogitates at God’s strength to grasp the fire. He eulogizes God’s courage to create the world – God could have just imagined the world, but decided to create it, according to the line, “On what wings dare he aspire?
The poem then advances to the next stanza, where Blake remarks the very power and strength of the tiger, and of its maker. He contemplates on the strength of him, having ‘what shoulder, and what art,” when God creates the creature. He sees the wonders of God to be able to “snitch [twist] the sinews [muscles] of” the dreadful creature, the tiger. Blake questions God if he was scared – did your hands shudder, when you gave life to the creature?
The visual imagery of the succeeding stanza is more baleful than heavenly, as Blake uses hammers and chains, referring to God as a blacksmith. In the line, “In what furnace was thy brain” shows the image of a fiery tiger whose very thinking began in a furnace. Blake, in the following lines, admires the artist, God, and his strong devilish grasps in passion and courage.
The chivalric build-up to the poem comes to a close and the epicenter is now reached in the fifth stanza. William Blake starts the stanza, referring to comets which only happen at special occasions. Finally, Blake gets down to business interrogating, “Did He smile his work to see? Did He who made the lamb make thee?” The significance of this line is remarkable, as Blake asks if it was the same God who made the lamb, also the tiger – it demonstrates the contrast between good and evil in the world. The innocent lamb is considered a symbol for peace and good, while the tiger is just the opposite. To reiterate, Blake states that both good and evil must co-exist peacefully – there is good and innocence while at the same time, there’s violence and evil.
William Blake, uses repetition to reinforce his ideas and thoughts, in the last stanza. This is a fearless immortal who has created both the docile lamb, and the fiery tiger. To consider the creature, we are to consider the creator. It is seen throughout that one must compare and contrast the beast (the tiger) with the tamed one (the lamb), and consider the proper balance of nature framed by the immortal.
Blake brilliantly demonstrates the contrasting creatures in nature, and how we, humans, must coexist peacefully. Later criticisms have the compared the tiger to Christ, implying that Christ is not a soft, forgiving soul, but a ferocious one, like the tiger, while punishing sinners.
