1、Analysis of The Tyger byBackground:“The Tyger“ ,one of William Blake(1759-1827)s most famous poem published in a collection of poems called Songs of Experience , Blake wrote “The Tyger“ during his more radical 激进 period. He wrote most of his major works during this time railing against oppressive in
2、stitutions like the church or the monarchy, or any and all cultural traditions which stifled imagination or passion.His choice of “tyger“ has usually been interpreted as being for effect, perhaps to render an “exotic or alien quality of the beast“, or because its not really about a “tiger“ at all, b
3、ut a metaphor.The Meter and The Rhyme Scheme：(the poem is in trochaic tetrameter)The poem contains six quatrains(A quatrain is a four-line stanza) ; and its rhyme is assonant(谐音), and follows perfectly the pattern aabb due to, in the case of the first and the sixth stanzas, the word symmetry is pron
4、ounced in such a way that it rhymes with eye.the semantic fieldsWith regard to the semantic fields, there are words related to the tools used by an ironsmith like, for instance, hammer, chain, furnace, and anvil, in the fourth stanza. Also, we can find a semantic field related to Nature like, for ex
5、ample, forests (line 2), skies (line 5), Tiger (lines 1 and 21), and Lamb (line 20). But, above all, the poet used a semantic语义的 field related to Creation when he writes words or phases like:What immortal hand and eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry? The simple structure The simple structure and the
6、 vocabulary help the reader to understand the main topics or concepts(思想), which are Evil, Good, and God The first impression that William Blake gives is that he sees a terrible tiger in the night, and, as a result of his state of panic(恐慌 ), the poet exaggerates（夸张） the description of the animal wh
7、en he writes:Tiger! Tiger! Burning brightIn the forests of the nightHowever, paying more attention to what comes next, the author talks about Evil, and Good, as I said above. These two essential ideas are symbolised in the Tiger and the Lamb, respectively (notice that both words have capital letters
8、).Immediately after seeing the Tiger in the forests, the poet asks it what deity 神 could have created it: What immortal hand and eye,Could frame thy fearful symmetry?The word immortal(不朽的) gives the reader a clue that the poet refers to God. Then, in the second stanza, the author wonders in what far
9、-away places the tiger was made, maybe, referring that these places cannot be reached by any mortal. In the third stanza, the poet asks again, once the tigers heart began to beat, who could make such a frightening and evil animal. Next, in the forth stanza, William Blake asks questions about the too
10、ls used by God. And he names the hammer, the chain, the furnace, and anvil. All these elements（要素、成分） are used by an ironsmith 铁匠. Thus 因此, according to the poet, God is a kind of craftsman. After that, in the fifth stanza, the poet asks two significant questions. The first one refers to Gods feelin
11、gs:Did he smile his work to see?In other words, was God happy with his creation? The second question is:Did he who made the Lamb make thee?Finally, the last stanza is the same as the first one which may indicate（指出） that the author is not able to understand the world where we live.Themes The Existen
12、ce of Evil .“The Tiger” presents a question that embodies the central theme: Who created the tiger? Was it the kind and loving God who made the lamb? Or was it Satan? Blake presents his question in Lines 3 and 4: What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?Blake realizes, of course, th
13、at God made all the creatures on earth. However, to express his bewilderment that the God who created the gentle lamb also created the terrifying tiger, he includes Satan as a possible creator while raising his rhetorical questions, notably the one he asks in Lines 5 and 6: In what distant deeps or
14、skies Burnt the fire of thy eyes?Deeps appears to refer to hell and skies to heaven. In either case, there would be fire-the fire of hell or the fire of the stars. .Of course, there can be no gainsaying that the tiger symbolizes evil, or the incarnation of evil, and that the lamb (Line 20) represent
15、s goodness, or Christ. Blakes inquiry is a variation on an old philosophical and theological question: Why does evil exist in a universe created and ruled by a benevolent God? Blake provides no answer. His mission is to reflect reality in arresting images. A poets first purpose, after all, is to pre
16、sent the world and its denizens in language that stimulates the aesthetic sense; he is not to exhort or moralize. Nevertheless, the poem does stir the reader to deep thought. Here is the tiger, fierce and brutal in its quest for sustenance; there is the lamb, meek and gentle in its quest for surviva
17、l. Is it possible that the same God who made the lamb also made the tiger? Or was the tiger the devils work? The Awe 敬畏 and Mystery 神秘 of Creation and the Creator The poem is more about the creator of the tiger than it is about the tiger intself. In contemplating the terrible ferocity and awesome sy
18、mmetry of the tiger, the speaker is at a loss to explain how the same God who made the lamb could make the tiger. Hence, this theme: humans are incapable of fully understanding the mind of God and the mystery of his handiwork. . To conclude 作结论, in my opinion, William Blake wrote the poem with a simple structure and a perfect rhyme to help the reader see the images he wanted to transmit(传达)and the theme he want to present. What a genius William Blake was！How wonderful this poem is！
