The Tyger | Major English - XII | Grade 12 Major English Note

The Tyger 

by William Blake

Important Questions and Answers

1.    Write down the construction of the poem.

'The Tyger' contains six four- line stanza and uses pairs of rhyming couplets to create a sense of rhythm and continuity. The notable exception occurs in lines 3 and 4, and 23 and 24, where ‘eye’ is imperfectly paired, ironically enough with ‘symmetry’. The majority of lines in this lyric contain exactly seven syllables, alternating between stressed and unstressed syllables:

Tiger! / Tiger! /burning/bright….

2.    Why do the stars throw down their spears?

The tiger is frightful and ferocious creature, created by the God. The stars symbolizing the angels who rebelled against the God under satan and disapproved the creation and were afraid of it. In the token of defeat and disapproval of the Gods’ fearful composition, they threw down their spears and watered the heaven with tears. The tiger is such a fearsome creature that even the stars themselves threw down their weapons rather than face it, and wept at its power.

3.    Describe how the poem ‘The Tyger’ shows the wonderful strength and skill of the maker and also write about the symbolic meaning of the tiger.

The physical feature of tiger is fearful and extraordinary. This fearful form must have been made by some immortal hands. The hands to twist the tiger’s body to give it different from must be very strong and powerful. The hammer and the anvil and the furnace in which the brain of the tiger was kept must have been the unusual ones. In this sense the creator of such dreadful creature must be divine. No mortal can make such an incredible animal into harmonious shape.  

4.    Explain the phrase ‘forests of the night’.

This phrase 'forests of the night' means ‘in the forest at night’. Forest is the place where tiger lurks. The forest of the night is the symbol of darkness and innocence, too. It also means ignorance, superstition and repression.

5.    What is the tone of the poem?

The tone varies among admiration, fear, and curiosity. The dominant and the single emotion of the poem is amazement, and perhaps no poem has ever expressed an emotion so fully. In the course of twenty- four lines it asks fourteen astonished questions. The description of unique thing is amazing. The poem is full of emotional questions without any expectation of answer since it includes questions itself. The poet is indirectly questioning the unequal creation of God in the poem. The tiger is the symbol for the fierce forces in the soul.

6.    Explain the lines with reference to the context.

Tiger! Tigger! Burning bright,

In the forest of the night,

What immortal hand of eye

Could frame the fearful symmetry?

The above lines are the citation from The Tyger by William Blake. It is a wonder of poetry. It combines a vivid realism with a strong visionary quality.

Literally, they refer to the fiery quality of the tiger’s eyes and the tiger’s glittering skin in the dark forests. Metaphorically, they refer to the violent, terrifying and destructive nature of the tiger. The forests of the night symbolize experience. The tiger is to Blake a symbol of life- relentless, strong, remorseless, yet beautiful. The speaker wonders at the dreadful and yet well-proportioned shape and figure of the tiger and asks who could have been the designer of the tiger’s body. The tiger is burning bright, vigorous and dangerous presence, in a vast and gloomy place.