The Tyger Commentary
The poem “The Tyger”, written by William Blake, is a poem that centers on evil’s ability in hiding behind a beautiful mask. Not only does the poet describe its physical characteristics, but shows confusion that occurs with such fear. Blake uses a questioning tone throughout the poem to exemplify his ideas and beliefs in the tiger’s origin and the reasons behind the creature’s physical appearances.
In the first stanza, Blake shows the secrecy of the tiger by linking nature with its origin and its physical appearances. Blake makes this evident so that it’ll highlight the tiger’s eerie aura. Blake starts off with comparing the tiger’s eyes to something that is: “burning bright” to show the tiger’s fire in its eyes. Fire is the very substance that keeps us warm, but it’ll hurt if we choose to go too close; this shows the tiger’s ability to kill a person. As the “burning” of its eyes is compared to fire, the reader immediately feels that the tiger is horrifying, which leads the reader into a negative stance. As a result of this alliteration, a question then follows. Blake writes in the poem that the tiger was created “in the forests of the night” by an “immortal hand or eye”. These two lines exemplify the poet’s confusion that arises with the tiger’s origin. Blake uses “forests” to show the area in which the tiger was created. When the word “forests” come into the minds of humans, forests are often where things are lost, where people can’t find there way out, where creatures often hunt for food, and somewhere that human’s must not prefer to go in the night. Being that it is during the night, this enhances the fact that it cannot be a mortal that created this creature. Ending that stanza, the Blake questions the ability of someone that “could frame (its) fearful symmetry”. Blake questions this to enhance the line before; to show that no human being can be so heartless in creating such a horrifying creature. Blake shows the tiger’s secrecy by illustrating its ability to give fear, and its birth in the forests of the night.
