Appearing in Songs of Experience, ‘The Tyger’ is usually understood as the companion piece of ‘The Lamb’ in Songs of Innocence; both poems ask the same question: where do we come from? In ‘The Lamb’, an answer is given: God made us – a simple affirmation of faith. ‘The Tyger’ only implies the answer by posing the rhetorical question: ‘Did he who made the lamb make thee?’ Indeed, one of the most noticeable features of ‘The Tyger’ is that it takes the form of a series of questions, none of which are answered. Whereas ‘The Lamb’ posits the process of creation as natural and harmonious, ‘The Tyger’ shows us something much more violent and mysterious; the tiger comes from ‘the forests of the night’ and its eyes burn in ‘distant deeps and skies’. Its creation is an act of confrontation and audacity. The Tyger represents the energy that Blake felt could burst the prison of ‘Starry Jealousy’ in which Earth had lamented when she was incarcerated. This lyric is thus an embodiment and a celebration of the principles of imaginative realization.
PDF link: [ Ссылка ]
Credits for background music:
1) [ Ссылка ]
2) I thank Abhijit Dey, one of my very talented students, for his wonderful keyboard rendition of Bella Ciao.
The link to his Facebook page: [ Ссылка ]
