William Blake and " the Tyger"


This poem by the Romantic painter and poet William Blake beautifully and mysteriously alludes to the concepts of creation, beauty, and the sublime. The tiger is usually cited as an example of the sublime i.e terrifying beauty, in philosophical literature on Aesthetics. Blake, himself a wildly erratic artist and a maverick even among the romantics of the early 19th century, triggers our imaginative understanding of art with the symbolism of the uncanny striped beast at the heart of it.


 The Tyger by William Blake

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?

the animal kingdom drawings I did yesterday just to give myself a break from human figure:

The tiger in rest

Hyenas : fiendish and playful

The Donkey: Docile and meek