The Tyger

TIGER, tiger, 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 and what art

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And, when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand and 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?

 

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? 

 




The Tiger represents evil, and why it is on earth. The tiger represents evil on earth and how everyone is afraid to stop it. Blake asks "What the hand dare seize the fire?" is a reference to an ancient Greek myth of Icarus. No man can be god; no man dare try to be god because it will always end in failure, just like Icarus could not fly high enough before high wings burned up. This shows immortality that evil has upon people. Too much of a good thing is no good.  The tiger is a powerful force known among people as unstoppable and immovable, such as evil is on the world. "Did He smile His work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee?" suggests God made the tiger because Jesus is known as "the lamb of god." In our minds Jesus is an good, loving idea we have that we all look up to but how can something so good be from the same father that created evil? Blake is suggesting that Good and evil should coexist in this world. "...burning bright in the forests of the night"  suggests that with all the effort of covering evil's tracks its always going to show its face in some way. Evil shows its face in dark places, such as the tiger is in the forest. “Burnt the fire of thine eyes?” References fire from the depths of hell and how it got to the tiger. This shows how the tiger (or evil) see’s things the same way hell would see the world. The tiger thinks, sees, and hears like hell. God is inviting the tiger to step into the only life that can satisfy its soul.