William Blake- `innocence and experience`

Title : The Tyger as a Symbol for the Miracle of Creation

Thesis : Blake 's The Tyger illustrates one of the poet 's best known ideas : all creation is based on the union and coexistence of the two traditional contraries : good and evil

Outline : A . Blake 's original philosophy of good and evil

1 .Good and evil are not morally opposed , but instead they form the essence of everything there is

2 .The Tyger is a symbol of evil , opposed to that of the Lamb , but at the same time it symbolizes perfection

and divinity

B . The divinity of the creator implies the divinity of the creation

1 . The Tyger is divine and infinite just as its creator is

2 .All creation is miraculous and essentially good

The Tyger is certainly the most famous and striking poem of Blake 's entire work . The first thing that impresses the reader is the form of the poem : the text is made up almost exclusively of questions . Also , the structure of the poem is symmetrical , and the last stanza is almost identical with the first one . The form of the poem indicates that the text as a whole is a questioning about the creation and the origin of the tiger . However , the tiger is obviously a symbol for something else first of all , as the counterpart of the lamb in the Songs of Innocence it symbolizes evil and the forces of Hell . Nevertheless , Blake did not intend to merely contrast in his poems the two concepts of innocence and experience , or those of good and evil . As it is well known , his philosophy was based on the exact opposite idea : Heaven and Hell are married in his works , that is , he puts forth a holistic view of reality in which these traditionally antagonistic principles are seen as united and inherent in all things

Thus , the tiger should not be understood as a mere symbol of evil on the contrary it actually represents the miracle of creation . This idea is justified by the many indications at the creator of tiger , at his immortal hand or eye ' or at his wings that made him dare undertake the creation of such a miraculous being . The fearful symmetry ' of the tiger is meant to signify the perfection of creation , which frightens the beholder as it intimates the nature of infinity and immortality 'Tyger ! Tyger ! burning bright / In the forests of the night What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry (Blake 214

The next four stanzas emphasize the idea of miraculous creation of the tiger and his creator 's audacity by taking , in turn the most wonderful parts of the tiger- his eyes 'In what distant deeps or skies / Burnt the fire of thine eyes , his heart , And what shoulder what art Could twist the sinews of thy heart , and finally his brain 'What the hammer ? What the chain /In what furnace was thy brain . The three parts that Blake chooses to accentuate the miraculous nature...