The Tyger by William Blake

William Blake is a famous poet for his collections of “Songs of innocence” and “Songs of Experience”. Blake gives his poems to the reader in two different perspectives. In “Songs of Innocence” the child’s perspective and soft language in the poems let us figure out the literal intentions of the collection as pure innocence. However, in “Songs of Experience” Blake reflects the opposite aspects of the “Songs of Innocence” in a severe language and he gives the evil side of the events as response to “Song of Innocence”. By using these two different approaches, Blake shows us both evil and good by presenting two different sides of the “human soul”. In his poem “The Tyger” Blake gives a fierce and dangerous aspect of the creation. In my essay I will try to explain allusions, intertextual reference and theme issued in the poem “The Tyger” by making some references to his other poem “The Lamb” in the category of “Songs of Innocence”.

The beginning of the line in “The Tyger” as the poet wrote foreshadows some of the forthcoming events, “Tyger! Tyger burning bright”. The phrase “burning bright” gives the poem a fierce and negative meaning together with “night” in the second line. Both “burning” and “night” have negative meaning as, obviously, “burning” relates to fire and “night” is to darkness. With the negative words given, reader can understand Blake’s this poem is different from the one in “Songs of Innocence” which is “The Lamb” as it begins with the line “Little Lamb”. Both words “Lamb” and “little” represent innocence, since the word “lamb” is opposite to “Tyger” as the tiger is wild but lamb is domestic, useful and harmless animal, and “little” represents weakness. So, the actual oppositions are given in both poems at the beginning.

Apart from some basic understandings of the poem from the beginning of the first lines, Blake gives some metaphorical words such as “immortal” in the third line in “The Tyger”. “Immortal” is obviously referred to God and so it is revealed that the creator of the “Tyger” is God. However, in the fifth stanza, he also mentions “The Lamb” as he asks: “Did he smile his work to see? / Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” Here, the question comes as the poet is surprised. Basically, the reference “he” goes to God, and he asks if it is the same power that created both “The Tyger” and “the Lamb”, and if God is happy for what he did. The word “The Lamb” is probably reference to the poem “The Lamb” from the “Songs of Innocence” by Blake. And he shows us the opposition that was created by God by referring to his other poem, because there is “Tyger burning bright” and also “Little Lamb” in the same world.

The poem goes on with some allusions to mythological figures both of whom committed something wrong. The second stanza, third line is a question “On what wings dare he aspire?” Here we have a reference to “Icarus” the figure who flew too high to the sun with his wings made of wax despite his father’s warning and fell into the sea as his wings melted by sun. And again, the second stanza, fourth line asks another question: “What the hand dare size the fire?” from the words “seize the fire” we remember the story of “Prometheus” who stole the fire from the gods and was punished for what he did. These two allusions show us the power of the God that he possesses. As we know these both figures committed what was forbidden. So these allusions also associate God’s creation with transgression that goes beyond the limits and laws, as poet’s field of understanding is not enough to comprehend it.

In the third stanza, the act of God is considered as “art”. As the words “shoulder” and “art” are referred to God’s art of being able create such a fierce creator as “tyger”. The word “dread” again implies the God’s act of creating dangerous things. However, the words in “The Lamb” are totally opposite to “The Tyger”, such as “tender voice”, “softest clothing” or “delight”. With such words, poet breaks the evil side of the poem and gives us a lively, innocent and happy side of the creation of God.

The art of God is repeated in the fourth stanza with some specific words, such as; “hammer”, “chain”, “furnace” and “anvil”. These words are referred to blacksmith who gives shape to a strong material, metal. While it is not easy to shape the metal, it is also not easy to control such a dreadful creature “tyger”. In the third line of the fourth stanza, it is written: “…what dread grasp / Dare its deadly terror clasp?”  Here the God as being the blacksmith, the poet shows us the power of the God that he can control the evil “deadly terror”. And with the last stanza, which is a repetition of the first one, poet tries to stress the questions he asked before, which are, again, related to power of God.

To conclude, I tried to explain the use of allusions, intertextual references and theme of the poem “The Tyger” along with giving some references to Blake’s “The Lamb”. While in “The Tyger” in “Songs of Experience” Blake gives us the evil side of the world, he also gives us good side of it in his “The Lamb” in “Songs of Innocence”. Throughout the poem, we understand that the poet stresses the power of God as he is capable of everything, and he is the one who created the “Tyger” together with “Lamb” and again he is the one who is able to control what he did.