Tuesday, 11 December 2012

The Tyger: Katrine


4 comments:

  1. I choose this picture because there's two sides to the poem; he could be admiring the tiger or fearing the tiger. Either way, I feel like he's questioning humanity and man as well as the creation of the tiger. If God created the tiger and the lamb, he created man as well - but if he's questioning God's creation of the tiger, he's questioning the creation of mankind, isn't he?
    With that being said, I find that the tiger is actually a metaphor for the human kind.

    Here's the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ByMEx50Zc
    The lyrics might/might not fit the atmosphere - nonetheless I think the MUSIC captures the feeling quite well. Then again - that's just me.

    The poem is about how God can create such a dangerous, horrifying, yet beautiful animal. It seems like Blake has a pretty ambivalent relationship to the tiger - he describes it with strong, frightening adjectives and verbs, yet he uses stars and fire as a resemblance; and stars and fire are viewed as beautiful and breathtaking parts of nature.

    Also, being a blacksmith is an admirable art - could he be admiring the tiger and actually degrade the lamb as a useless and irrelevant creature?

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    Replies
    1. To b sure, Blake is breaking taboos iin his poem. I believe that in The Tyger he is investigating the darker side of human nature. Dare I utter the teacher-line??? The poem may be all about....sex! :)

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    2. Boom, bonus points for me being the first one to point the tiger out as a metaphor. I can sense the A coming up! ;-)

      Either way, if it's about the darker sides of human nature it's quite obvious that it revolves around sex. It might not be the baddest sin, but it sure as hell is a sin we all know of!
      But then what - the tiger and his description of it is really a description of the lusts in human nature, or am I getting it all wrong?

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    3. Hmmm, perhaps - I'm just speculating ;)
      There is more to life than the cute little lambs of childhood - that's for sure!
      Call it a metaphor for life/the human mind/nature/God/sex/growing up/evil.... A metaphor it is... You may want to look at Troels' comment about the pagan gods - does he have a point there?

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