Thursday, April 14, 2011

In "The Tyger," what does the image of the tiger burning in the first line suggest?

One of the most famous poems contained in Blake's
brilliant Songs of Innocence and Experience is "The Tyger," which
begins with the well-known lines:


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Tyger! Tyger! burning
bright


In the forests of the
night,


What immortal hand or
eye


Could frame thy fearful
symmetry?



The first two lines
of the first stanza help create a distinct visual image of the flicker of a tiger's
stripes as seen through the trees of a dark forest. Of course, the intense, burnt orange
colour of the tiger would give it the impression of almost being like a flame as it runs
through the trees and the flickering would be created by the way that the tree trunks
would block the view of the living torch that would be running so swiftly through the
night. The first two lines are actually an example of an implied metaphor, as the tiger
is compared to a flame or a torch that "burns bright" as it runs around at
night.

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