The last verse is exactly the same as the first verse. This is believed to be for poetic effect. In the first verse he was asking a rhetorical question but in this last verse he now posing the question to the creator of the tiger.
I think the writer here has been very successful in his approach to writing this poem. He manages to really emphasis the posona of the tiger correctly. This poem also has a rhythm to it that adds to its success. When looking at the verses one can see that each verse consists of two rhyming couplets.
Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
The poem I am going to compare ‘The Tiger’ against is ‘The Lamb’.
The lamb is written in the third person. It consists of two verses, which much like ‘The Tiger’ is constructed of rhyming couplets.
Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
In the first line the writer begins by posing the question who made the lamb. This is followed by a rhetorical question stating does the lamb even know who made thee.
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed,
By the stream and o’er the mead;
‘Gave thee life’ the writer is here speaking about a living thing and stating that who ever created the lamb, gave it both life and a source of nourishment by the stream.
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Here the writer is making reference to the lambs clothing. This is an extension of the rhetorical question in the second line. The writer is asking if the lamb knows who gave it is soft, woolly, bright coat of fur.
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
This means who gave you your tender, calming, beautiful voice, which echoes through all the valleys making them rejoice.
The last two lines in the verse are exactly the same as the first two lines in the verse.
In this verse the writer uses adjectives that are symphatetic and bring joy, such as,
‘Making all the vales rejoice,’
‘tender voice’
‘Clothing of delight’
This adds to the innocence of the lamb, that is why this poem is placed in Blake’s poems of innocence.
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee:
These are the first two lines of the second verse. Straight away the reader can see the difference between the two verses. In the first verse the writer posed all the questions and in the second verse the writer is going to answer these questions.
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
Blake is saying here simply that the lambs creator can be said to be called a lamb. This does not mean literally that its creator is called ‘Lamb’ but it is a metaphorical term that states that the creator maybe as pure and innocent as the lamb is.
He is meek, and He is mild;
He became a little child.
This is the first line from a biblical reference from a hymen. Blake may have placed this in his poem because in the age that he lived most people were very religious.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Here the purity and innocence of the lamb is compared to a child. This maybe because God’s child, Jesus, was a shepherd.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
The poem ends with the a repetition of the sentence ‘Little Lamb, God bless thee!’ The reason for the repetition is clear, as one can see the writer has always used repetition to open and close both verses, the reason why he wants to bless is not so obvious.
I must now highlight the difference between these two poems. The first difference can be found by looking at the heading Blake has placed each poem under. ‘The Lamb’ has been placed under Songs of Innocence whereas ‘The Tiger’ is placed under Songs of Experience. This is due to the different types of animals they are and the way they are portrayed by Blake. In these two poems Blake does talk about two animals, but these animals are very different from one another. The tiger is large, ferocious animal whereas the lamb is small and fairly weak. Furthermore the overview content of the poem is different. Overall Blake takes a very pessimistic view in writing ‘The Tiger’. The writer uses many similes and metaphors that portray the tiger as being an animal of destruction, such as:
What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
Furthermore the tiger is referred to as being an anvil, a strong, solid unbreakable being.
In the lamb, Blake uses a much more positive approach. He sees the lamb as being the opposite to the tiger and he makes this clear in the language he uses to describe the lamb. For example:
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice.
Furthermore Blake goes as far as comparing the lamb’s innocence and purity to Jesus. Obviously one can see the personal opinion Blake had on these two animals.
The poems are in different due to the poetic techniques Blake uses. One very important technique Blake uses are rhetorical question. ‘The Tiger’ is mainly composed up of rhetorical questions. Through these question Blake tells the reader what he really thinks but does not go as far as stating what he thinks. The lamb is much different. In the lamb Blake does use questions in the first verse. The main body of the first verse are actually separate questions, one can tell this by looking at the second line which reads,
Dost thou know who made thee?
The rest of the main verse then even though Blake has not actually written should be interpreted like this,
Dost thou know who… Gave thee life and bid thee feed,
By the stream and o’er the mead.
Dost thou know who… Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
But unlike ‘The Tiger’ in the second verse Blake goes onto answer these questions in his own way. To the answer who made thee? He answers god made thee. Overall I think that Blake has written two very good contrasting poems.
The next set of poems I am going to write about is ‘The Chimney Sweeper’ from both the Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence.
The Chimney Sweeper from the Songs of Experience is written in two different persons, where the first verse is written in the third person and the remaining two verses are written in the first person.
The first verse consists of two rhyming couplets.
‘A little black thing among the snow,
Crying “ ‘weep! ‘weep!” in notes of woe.
“Where are thy father and mother, say?”
“They are both gone up to the church to pray.
The first line refers to the little boy as a black thing. This shows this boys insignificant. He is also referred to as being black, this is due to the soot that is present down a chimney. In the next two lines the boys asks questions. These questions are answered in the next verse. There is also a change in person in this verse, it is now in the first person, and this is because the child is now talking.
“Because I was happy upon the heath,
And smiled among the winter’s snow,
They clothed me in the clothes of death,
And taught me to sing in notes of woe.
Here the child is saying he used to be happy and smiled during the winter months but once his parent noticed this they dressed him in those soot covered clothes and sent him to clean chimneys. In the last verse the boys says,
“And because I am happy, and dance, and sing.
They think they have done me no injury,
And are gone to praise God and his Priest and King,
Who make up a Heaven of our misery.”
Here the boy is saying, as he puts a front on and pretends he is happy and gets on with the task he has been set his parents think they have done no wrong sending him to work at such a young age.
The next poem I am going to look at is the Chimney Sweeper from the Songs of Innocence. This poem is written in the first person for the first verse and in the third person for the remaining six verses.
When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry “ ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!”
So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
This is the first verse of the poem. It is written in the first person from the perspective of the boy. Blake introduces this poem by telling us how this young boy first became a chimney sweeper. I believe it was because when his mother had died the family was either not able to generate enough money so the father sent the boy to work or the father could not cope looking after the boy all day so he was sent to work for the most part. The significance of the crying is to show both his sadness at the situation and to emphasis his young age.
There’s little Tom Darce, who cried when his head,
That curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved so I said
“Hush, Tom! Never mind it, for when your head’s bare
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair.”
Here the poet is saying that no one was able to help this little boy not even his friend. Furthermore Blake makes reference to a lamb which Blake has used time and time again as a symbol of purity and innocence.
And so he was quiet, and that very night,
As Tom was a sleeping, he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned and jack,
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black.
In this verse the poet is saying that little Tom Darce has accepted his fate, and realises that he is to turn out like many chimney sweepers before him. The significance of being locked up in coffins of black is that he thinks that he will be stuck in this eternal job as long as he lives.
And by came an angel, who had a bright day,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain, leaping, laughing, they run,
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun.
Here we see an insight into a particular dream the boy had had. Where an angel came and set them free, and they were freed from the restraints of the tight, narrow chimneys and now able to run and leap. The last line makes reference to them actually being able to have a bath and not be covered in soot all the time furthermore not having to constantly look up towards a cloud of black dust but instead the bright sun.
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.
And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,
He’d have God for his father, and never want joy.
This verse is a continuation of the previous verse and Tom’s dream. Naked and white refers to the lose of all the soot from their bodies and clothing, ‘all their bags left behind’ they will leave the bags they collected soot in behind. The last two lines of the verse say that if Tom as to be a good boy he would have god as a father and would be so happy that he would never wish for joy in his life again.
And so Tom awoke, and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work.
Tho’ the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm;
So if all do our duty they need not fear harm.
Here Tom awakes from the dream he has been having and goes to work in the chimneys but this time he fears nothing, although the work he does is dangerous and there is a risk he may die in an accident he does not fear because he knows that if he were to die he would just go to heaven beside God.
I am now going to compare the two poems. I similarity between the two poems is that they are both about Chimney Sweepers. Although there content is very different. The poem in Songs of experience is very negative whereas this poem is very positive. This is because in the songs of experience Blake writes about what he honestly thinks would happen in the real world that he lives in, but in the songs of innocence he writes about things he wish would happen.
Another similarity between the two poems is the way in which they rhyme. Each verse consists of two rhyming couplets where the first two and last two lines of each verse rhyme.