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William Blake- The Tyger
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Summary:
- Begins with the speaker asking the fearsome tiger who could have created it, what kind of divinity
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Each stanza contains further questions which
all refine the first one
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- Basically asking the horror and suffering question- what kind of God would release atrocity into the
world?
- Tiger = bad and represents evil, not viewed in a beautiful light, treated as a monster
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Gives it a childish and sing-song feel which contrasts with the serious
subject matter, possibly drawing attention to the fact that the God who is responsible for the tiger is also
responsible for innocence, childhood, fun and games
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- Meter regular and rhythmic, mainly trochaic
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Or hammering, perhaps links to the blacksmith in the poem’s image, the idea of some kind of
terrible construction taking place
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Regular, controlled beat as
the speaker tells of something terrible makes it all the worse
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- ‘Druidic chant’
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- The phrases become increasingly shorter throughout the fourth stanza- the speaker is speeding the reader
along or perhaps raising his voice in a crescendo
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Language/wider analysis:

- Blake uses the idea that nature must somehow reflect upon its creator
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What kind of God would design such a
terrifying beast and go through with the creation? The tiger is an example of the undeniable evil that exists
in the world- what does this tell us about God? How can God have created the tiger and the lamb? One of
the most frequently-asked and problematic theological questions
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Symbolic
centre for an investigation into the presence of evil in the world
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“fearful symmetry” of the tiger- the beauty and the destruction, the moral and the physical, the God that
created the tiger and the one that created the lamb
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Clearly
made on purpose- what does that say about God?
Speaker is in awe of the tiger as physical and aesthetic achievement, even as he recoils in horror from the
moral implications
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For it is not just the beautiful body
of the tiger that is being made, but the revolting heart also
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Beauty can be deceptive, not always a good thing
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Speaker in ‘The Tyger’ is able to criticise the world, he is experienced and able to ponder the greater
questions, he is not blind
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The world is actually much more
complex and the idea that God can only be benevolent is extremely naive
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Rich imagery- “burning bright”, “forests”, “distant deeps or skies”, “fire of thine eyes”, “sinews of thy
heart”, “furnace”, “stars”, “tears”- shows the entrancing and fascinating quality of something so evil
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He knows more than the speaker of ‘The Lamb’ but he
has more questions- the more you know the less you know almost, increased knowledge only leads to
increased questions, paradox
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If all is created in God’s image, what does existence of tiger say about God?

http://www
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org/stable/10
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Robinson

- Shift of tense every time the word ‘dare’ occurs
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- John E
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Also claims it can’t be present because

otherwise it would be “dares” since it’s third person
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However, gradually came to form “dares” in the present tense but in Blake’s day the two forms were still
in competition, still during the evolution
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The
version with the ’s’ only occurs twice in the entirety of his works
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- ‘temporal remoteness, maintained consistently through the unvarying past tense form of the verbs, which
communicates most forcefully the dramatic speaker’s sense of a tremendously powerful and- to his limited

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understanding- inscrutable creator who has expressed himself through such apparently contradictory
creations as the tyger and the lamb’

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org/stable/10
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Brennan

- Some scholars have insisted on the positive nature of Blake’s tiger
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- ‘what art’- suggests creator’s imaginative or intellectual faculty
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Thus the poem moves from a consideration of the power of the tiger’s creator
(symbolized by the hand) to a deeper wonder concerning the inscrutable mind (symbolized by the eye)
which could will such a creature’s existence, foreknowing its malignant nature’

The Divine Image- William Blake
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness
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For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress
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And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too
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- Speaker states that all people pray to these in times of distress and thank them for blessings
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- Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love are also the characteristics of Man- Mercy in the human heart, Pity in the
face, Peace envelopes humans and Love exists in the ‘form’ or body
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United by the four virtues above all else
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This kind of form is usually associated with candour and naturalness, common in songs, hymns and
nursery rhymes, therefore fits in well with the innocence theme
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- Love rhymed with itself in second stanza, all the virtues do in fact- repetition is comforting and constant
repetition of virtues shows that these virtues are so important to humanity, so core, they will always be
there, they are the substance of humanity
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Language/wider analysis:
- One of Blake’s more rhetorical songs
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Idea that God is a reflection of man interesting, since God often used by man in order to control
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Mercy, Pity, Peace, and
Love aren’t characteristics of God, they are the substance of God
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- Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love find embodiment in Man, become recognisable because their features are
basically human
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- Poem can definitely be compared and contrasted with Little Boy Lost and Little Boy Found
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- Blake’s idea of a ‘Divine Image’ is therefore the reverse of the usual- the poem constructs God in the
image of man rather than man being constructed in the image of God, as is seen in the bible
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Blake believed that ‘all
deities reside in the human breast’
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Christ was both God and man and is therefore a vehicle for Blake’s mediation between the two
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- ‘all must love the human form’- yes, they should, but they don’t
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- ‘And Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love/ Is Man, his child and care’- ‘is’ rather than the correct ‘are’ suggests a
unity of these values, they are a single entity that make up an ideal/a divinity
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“Because I was happy upon the heath,
“And smil’d among the winter’s snow
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“And because I am happy & dance & sing,
‘They think they have done me no injury
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”
Summary:
- Speaker sees child covered in soot lying in the snow
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Clear hypocrisy here
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AABB, CDCD, EFEF
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Final stanza in fact the F rhyme is only a half rhyme, the childish innocence is being lost by the harshness
of the world- poverty represented by winter
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Language/wider analysis:
- ‘weep weep’ links to the innocence version of the poem
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- gone to church but they’re still the villains of this piece
- ‘little black thing’- dehumanised
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Blake loved nature thought it was wonderful so the
difference shows that the child’s innocence and childish joy in his surroundings has been taken from himnow there’s a contrast, he’s no longer part of the beauty of nature and the snow is obviously making him
cold
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Innocence of children is disliked by the experienced
adults, jarring states of being, experiences taints innocence
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- Entire system colludes to build its own vision of paradise upon the labours of children who will most
likely die before they reach adulthood
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‘make up a
heaven of our misery’- they are exploiting children for their own economic gain
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- Another reading- ‘because I am happy & dance & sing
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He has still been harmed
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- This poem critiques the innocent viewpoint of the former
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He doesn’t find the same comfort and happiness as Tom Dacre but he is also free from any illusion created
by a society that colludes against him and exploits him
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- Both sides have their merits and downsides
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there’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curl’d like a lamb’s back, was shav’d: so I said
“Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head’s bare
“You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair
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And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he open’d the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,
And was in a river, and shine in the Sun
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And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags & brushes to work
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Summary:
- Speaker is small boy who was sold into the chimney-sweeping business when his mother died
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Angel arrives and sets them all
free, they run through a green field, wash themselves and have happy times
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They are all comforted that their lives will someday improve
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Gives it an innocent, sing-song
feel, comforting and juxtaposes the harsh world described in the early stanzas
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To an experienced reader, it is obvious that the promise of future happiness is
a way of subduing the oppressed for further exploitation
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Blake
had little patience with these palliative measures that did nothing to help the suffering child workers
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- The chimney sweeper is comforted by ideas of repayment in another life
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Not just criticising subduing of child workers but of
the entirety of society, who are being forced to put up with their discontent by a lie they are fed by
institutionalised religion
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- From an experienced perspective- critique
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The dangers of innocence
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- ‘lock’d up in coffins of black’ because so many mining children sent to an early grave- but they’ll just
reach heaven sooner
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- ‘Tho’ the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm’- Tom’s discontent subdued, message has worked,
but also suggests Tom has been deceived
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The Nurse’s Song- William Blake
When the voices of children are heard on the green
And laughing is heard on the hill,
My heart is at rest within my breast
And everything else is still
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“No, no, let us play, for it is yet day
“And we cannot go to sleep;
“Besides, in the sky the little birds fly
“And the hills are all cover’d with sheep
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The little ones leaped & shouted & laugh’d
And all the hills ecchoed
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- Nurse who is overlooking some children playing in a field, tries to call them in, children are oblivious to
dangers of plating outside a tight
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Structure:
- Four quatrains, ABCB, contains an internal rhyme in the third line of each stanza
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- rest/breast rhyme in stanza 1- draws attention to peace and the motherly bosom, a place of comfort
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play/away rhyme- freedom but also might be led away? sky/fly- carefree and innocent
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Language/wider analysis
- last word- ‘ecchoed’- something slightly ominous about it
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- No suggestion of alienation between either children and their adults, or of man and nature
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- Main theme- innocent and simple joy, though they do not know better- a subtle warning can be gleaned
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Approaching the world with optimism- don’t think of the coming night but the last moments of daylight
still to be enjoyed
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She can regain her
innocence
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- More likeable than in the ‘experience’ counterpart, but too trusting perhaps
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My mother taught me underneath a tree
And sitting down before the heat of day
She took me on her lap and kissed me,
And pointing to the east began to say
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And flowers and trees and beasts and men receive
Comfort in morning joy in the noonday
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For when our souls have learn’d the heat to bear,
The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice
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Thus did my mother say and kissed me,
And thus I say to little English boy
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And then I’ll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him and he will then love me
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Blake questions basic Christian ideals
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- Boy explains that although his skin may be black, his soul is as white as that of an English child- a strong
equality message here
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- His skin is black but is simply a black cloud, which will disappear when he meets God in heaven- it
doesn’t mean anything
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- The black boy says he will become like the English boy and the English boy will love him
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Pentameter
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- Slightly longer lines well suited to the pedagogical tone of the poem (teaching, imparting wisdom)
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Reference to rising suggests that things
must change
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- “black bodies” and a “sunburnt face”- black people have clearly been touched by the sun, suggests that
they are closer to the sun i
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God
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Only one can
become dark and sunburned being close to the sun
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Potentially English people distanced from God as a result
of their treatment of black people
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- This metaphor continued in sixth stanza- “When I from black and he from white cloud free”- implies that
after physical life has passed, all will be united with God
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e
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Obviously gold and silver are precious metals and are therefore clearly of value, but they are also not
associated with anything politically, they are indifferent to racial and social class
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- Divine love that transcends race
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He has lost something, bereavement =
pretty serious stuff
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Tender concern for her

child’s self-esteem, a strong desire that he know the comfort of God
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Their dark skin is equally temporary
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- Black child internalises mother’s lesson, applies it in relations with outer world- i
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his relationship with a
white child
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- Black boy better prepared of heaven than the white boy due to the burden of his black skin
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- However, the black boy is deferent to the white boy, wants to stroke his hair and shield him
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Poem shows atop-passive acceptance of suffering and injustice- rather than fighting
for change innocence might mean that you just sit there and accept it, hoping things will get better in
heaven rather than fighting for earthly change
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Equality of human beings before
God is the main message- so it is anti-racist
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By the stream & o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee,
Dos thou know who made thee
Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name
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Little Lamb God bless thee
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Where does its “softest clothing wooly bright” come from?

We don’t know
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He in his gentleness resembles a lamb and a child
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Repetition in first and last couplets makes the lines into a refrain,

giving the poem a song-like quality
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Flowing sibilance and soft vowel sounds also
contribute to this childish affect
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“Little lamb” very childish
and innocent, soft to say
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- First stanza = rural and descriptive, second = abstract spiritual matters, contains explanation and analogy
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- Child talking to a lamb is a very believable one and adds to the overall feeling of innocence
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Sense of artifice
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Jesus as a lamb, he is gentle, meek and offers peace
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However, the poem doesn’t provide a completely adequate doctrine
since it fails to account for the presence of suffering and evil
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There is no direct
attack on Christianity or anything but this poem is focused solely on the good and not the evil and
therefore we can glean a lot from what Blake leaves out
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One of Blake’s most strongly religious poems
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Pastoral is shown as innocence, whereas experience and corruption is the
urban and the aftereffects of the industrial revolution
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Gentleness, kindness, innocence- the pastoral is good, it is pure and uncorrupted, as white as the fleece of
the lamb
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God’s best qualities are the same as the boy and the lamb- innocent, loving, pastoral- he is not a hardened
industrial worker or repressor
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The pastoral is more closely associated with
God
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- Together, the two poems offer a perspective on religion which includes the good and clear as well as the

terrible and difficult to understand
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- The Lamb/The Tyger together is a good example of how, rather than allying himself with either innocence
or experience, Blake stands apart from these two perspectives
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The Clod and the Pebble
“Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair
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”

ABAB ABCB ABAB
Analysis:
Two contrary types of love
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The clod is being trodden on by cows
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Clearly innocent and experienced- the way one more becomes cynical about love the more one
experiences it, perhaps- suggests that the pebble’s view is more accurate
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Its
being squashed shows how life can easily crush this view and can crush those who hold it- such
innocence renders you vulnerable
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On the other hand, the pebble is hardened, has been hardened by
love
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Joseph Heffner argues that clod and pebble represent masculine and feminine standpoints on
love- disagree, innocent and experienced rather than gendered
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Clod- blind that in building heaven in hell’s despair it is self serving- love only nice when it serves
itself in process?
Altruistic view of love
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Easy to
manipulate and exploit, whereas there is none of that with the pebble- the pebble is studier and
independent
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Clod is mobile and has the potential to float above the waters of cynicism whereas the pebble must
stay where it is
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Some hypocrisy- the Clod’s heaven is built upon Hell’s despair, and so permits the reading that
discomfort and exploitation is to a certain extent necessary- path to heaven runs through miles of
clouded hell type thing
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Ending with the Pebble’s side perhaps implies that the Pebble’s view is favoured- yet perhaps not,
two balance each other out nicely, language of each mirroring that of the other- ‘Love seeketh not
itself to please’ - ‘Love seeketh only self to please’ (self and not ‘itself’ to keep syllable count the
same and thus keep the lines in perfect balance with one another)- ‘But for another gives its ease’,
‘Joys in another’s loss of ease’- ends with the same world, ‘another’ the same also, ‘Builds a
Heaven in Hell’s despair’, ‘Builds a Hell in Heaven’s despite’- linguistic mirroring
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The poem’s perfect balance force the reader to mediate and draw his/her own conclusions, Blake
questions but does not offer us a solution

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