“The Tyger” By William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! 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 sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & 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 watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake structured his poem with six Quatrains.He uses a variety of rhyming couplets, repition, powerful imagery and alot of rhetorical questions.He begins the first quatrain with “Tyger! Tyger!burning bright.” Right away he uses repition.The word “Tyger” is a symbol of all creation. He uses powerful imagery with the line “In the forests of the night.” This imagery creates a scene of a dark environment in which the Tyger is hiding.Blake ends his first quatrain with a rhetorical question. “what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?” The immortal hand or eye Blake uses is referring to a God.He is saying, what God could create or “frame” something that is both beautiful, symmetrical, and also so terrifying and fearful like the tyger. Blake begins the second quatrain with some imagery as well as another rhetorical question. “In what distant deeps or skies burnt the fire of thing eyes?” By saying distant deeps or skies, Blake is using an allusion to give the reader and image of Heaven and Hell.In the third stanza he uses another rhetorical question, to ask “Who created this creature?” He uses powerful imagery to provide a picture of a God literally molding/ creating the tyger. He uses imagery to show how the heart of this Beast begins to beat he says “what dread hand? and what dread feet?” This shows how God again asks himself if he dreaded creating such a magnificent creature that is capable of both good and evil.Blake starts his fifth quatrain with powerful imagery as well as an allusion. ” When the stars threw down their spears, And water’d heaven with their tears,” the imagery in these two lines clearly forms a picture of angels throwing down spears.I believe by Tyger blake meant mankind.In the sixth stanza he uses repition to bring back the “Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, in the forests of the night, what immoral hand or eye.” Those three lines are identical to the first three lines of hte poem. The “Tyger” links to mankind, the burning bright refers to the flourishing and furiousity of the tyger(mankind). In the last line of the poem, line 24. In the first stanza, Blake asked “Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” Meaning, is God actually able to create a creature so terrifying yet beautiful. In line 24 of the poem, Blake changes his question to ask “DARE frame thy fearful symmetry?” Now, the question is not if God is powerful enough to create a creature like the tyger, but what God would even dare to create a creature so terrifying. Would he dare create the tyger(manking) with free will, knowing that free will may cause them to astray from God.