Hope: An Analysis Of William Blake's The Tyger

Hope - An Alien Light

In the 2016 film Arrival, a linguist phenom named Louise asserts that communication is the foundation of civilization (Villeneuve, Arrival). How could it not be? Communication is not only essential to the advanced civilization which we take for granted, but it is also fundamental to who we are as humans. Our relationships, interactions, and even what we do not say is loaded with communication. One might even argue we are communication, ceaselessly and involuntarily. However, as water is the ocean yet does not change the ocean, we are communication and only experience it as the pacific does a hurricane, slightly jostled but ultimately unaltered. Poetry has a special way of communicating from and to the soul in concentrated language meant to evoke a stirring response. I will explore William Blake’s “The Tyger” to illustrate how humanity is but a statue in the wind of even the most striking voices of reason. Communication, especially

The first and last stanzas of the poem almost perfectly mirror one another except for one word. The word “Could” (4) becomes “Dare” (24) in the final stanza which suggests that Blake is asking how dare God create such a terrible beast. He even questions if there is a sadistic motivation behind God’s creation of the Tyger; “Did he smile his work to see?” (19) However, there is a redeeming gem of hope embedded in the poem. In the next line Blake asks, “Did he who made the lamb make thee?” (20) suggesting that he understands God, first, as the creator of peace. Additionally, each stanza in the poem obeys an AABB rhyme scheme except for the repeated stanza. The word which disrupts the rhyme scheme is “symmetry,” which magnifies its significance in interpretation. The word “symmetry” suggests that God will always maintain a balance between the dark violence of the Tyger and the peaceful sweetness of the