FREE ESSAY ON WILLIAM BLAKE'S THE TYGER

WILLIAM BLAKE'S THE TYGER

The Tyger Ana Melching
5-8-99
Does god create both gentle and fearful creatures? If he does 
what right does he have? Both of these rhetorical questions are 
asked by William Blake in his poem The Tyger. The poem takes 
the reader on a journey of faith, questioning god and his nature. The poem 
completes a cycle of questioning the creator of the tyger, discussing how it 
could have been created, and then returns to questioning the creator again. 
Both questions about the tyger's creator are left unanswered. William Blake 
uses rhythm, rhyme, and poetic devices to create a unique effect and to 
parallel his theme in his work The Tyger.
William Blake's choice of rhythm is important to his poem 
The Tyger because it parallels the theme of the poem, that the 
tyger may have been made by god or another harsher creator. Most 
of the poem is written in trochaic tetrameter as can be seen in line 
three, when Blake says, What immortal hand or eye. This rhythm is 
very harsh sounding, exemplifying the very nature of the tyger. 
Some of the lines in the poem were written in iambic tetrameter, 
such as in line ten, when Blake says, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? .
Iambic tetrameter has a much softer sounding beat 
than does trochaic tetrameter. This implies the gentle nature of 
god, and if he could create such a beast. The last word of each 
quatrain is written in a spondee. This helps to create a unique symmetry 
and to parallel the fearful symmetry of a tyger. 
William Blake's use of rhyme greatly affects his work The 
Tyger. The entire poem is written in couplets. Couplets contain 
two lines, paralleling the dichotomy of the poem, that everything 
has two sides or parts. The rhyme scheme is AA BB CC etc. Because the 
rhyming words are so distinguishable from the non-rhyming words, they 
form two separate categories, which also parallels the dichotomy of the 
poem.
William Blake's choice of poetic devices greatly affect his 
work The Tyger. He uses cacophony, which is a rough sounding group of 
words, to exemplify the brute nature of the tyger and to wonder if it was 
made in hell by an evil creator. This can be seen in line sixteen when he 
says, Dare its deadly terrors clasp. This line sounds unpleasant and harsh 
to the ears. William Blake uses euphony, which is a smooth sounding group 
of words, to show the gentle nature of god and to wonder if he created the 
tyger. This can be seen in line twenty when he says Did he who made the 
lamb make thee? This line sounds soft and pleasing to the ears. William 
Blake uses alliteration and assonance to make his words seem harsh or soft. 
He uses alliteration, which is the repetition of identical consonants to make 
his words seem harsh as in distant deeps or dare the deadly. This 
emphasizes the tiger's rough nature, and questions the nature of it's creator. 
He also uses assonance, which is the repetition of identical vowel sounds, in 
lines ten and eleven when he says twist the sinews, and began to beat. 
This emphasizes the good nature of god.
William Blake never answers his question about the 
unknown nature of god. He leaves it up to the reader to decide.
By beginning and ending his poem with the same quatrain he asks 
the question about god creating evil as well as good, again. By changing one 
word from could to dare he states that if god truly did create this beast, the 
tyger, then how dare he. This also helps to give the poem a formal completeness. 
By switching his rhythm from trochaic to iambic, Blake shows the two 
possible natures of god, or of the two creators. By using couplets 
he emphasizes the dichotomy of the poem. By using poetic devices 
such as euphony, cacophony, assonance, and alliteration he can 
further develop his question about the nature of god, gentle, or 
harsh. His rhetorical questions are left unanswered. By doing this 
he leaves his readers wondering, Is there really an answer?
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