It became clear to me after hearing podcast #4 and reading "The Tyger" that Blake's message was different than my original interpretation to my previous post "Blake's 'The Lamb.'" At a glance, the “Tyger” seems what to be a duality poem that was meant to be read aside of the “The Lamb.” This is evident as one read’s the 20th verse “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” This verse also indicates the climatic question of these two poems, and that is whether the same God who made the beautiful, “tender”, “soft,” and bright lamb also made the evil, fiery, and fearful tiger (p. 79, 88, 89 of text). Although in “The Lamb,” the question of the creator is answered, “The Tyger” left us in contemplation with its rhetorical questions. This asymmetry shows the imbalance between Blake’s focus on the evil over the good. This theme was a common reoccurring unorthodox trait of Blake in that he specifically focuses more on the dark and imperfect side of things. If we compare the number of verse between these two poems based on contemplative questions and the analogy of the animals to the good or bad properties, we can conclude that Blake spent more time and focus on “The Tyger.” And I think Blake did this on purpose to make his work stand out from the teachings of the Church and other authors at the time. It’s a brilliant method for evil stands out more at the time where everyone in the Church was focusing on the Good, although there was much corruption.
In addition to these ideas, “The Tiger” is very representative of Blake’s work as he uses analogies of animals to symbolize the two sides of nature, the Good and the Bad. This poem uses very powerful onomatopoeia (“burning bright,” “seize the fire,” “beat,” “feet,” “dread grasp,” “terrors clasp!,”) to make the reader feel the power, dark, and angry presence of the beast (p. 89 of text). This not only makes the poem more interesting to read, but also amplifies the story to be representative of what he is trying to portray. Unlike Innocence where the choice of words is more calm and easy going, Experience stories uses more forceful and powerful words to show the nature of Evil. This is apparent as we compare “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.”
I feel that a lot more meaning to Blake’s work will unfold as you read all his pieces more thoroughly. This may be required to piece together a bigger message that he is trying to portray in his works. It’s as if his works is a jigsaw puzzle.
Van,
ReplyDeleteYou make some interesting comments and speculations about Blake's "The Tyger" in this post, and I like the way you focus on some specific lines and words. I think you need more textual support for some of your claims about Blake's religious views, though, and it is probably not appropriate to jump to conclusions about that based on this single poem ("The Lamb" gives an entirely different message, for instance).
Also, you misuse some poetic terms, such as onomatopoeia (which means a word suggesting a sound, like "bow-wow" or "ka-boom").
Van,
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea on the duality of Blake's poems. I like the way you mention his juxtaposition between the two poems, as one details the light side and the other the dark. Throughout "The Tyger," Blake uses alliteration and meter to really pound in some of the details you mention.
Unlike a lot of our classmates, I think, I really like Blake, not so much for interpreting what exactly he means, but I appreciate his use of duality and balance in his writings. So when you mentioned how it is likely that he spent more time perfecting "The Tyger" versus "The Lamb," the evil idea versus the good one, I was kind of taken aback, and a little disappointed in myself for not noticing. I think it's interesting that the whole poem for "The Tyger" is a collection of questions, whereas "The Lamb" is more of a series of statements, which relate to God as the creator. Perhaps he didn't need as many lines to portray this image as he did for "The Tyger," but I still enjoyed them both.
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