A Critical Appreciation of the Poem “The

Tyger” by William Blake

The poem “The Tyger” is the masterpiece

of William Blake’s poetry. It is a poem of
six four-line stanzas. The poem illustrates
Blake’s excellence in craftsmanship and
descriptive skill. This poem is a fine
specimen of Blake’s command over the
production of musical notes. Each poem
of Blake is described to be ‘a jewel casket
beautiful in itself’. The poem “The Tyger”
is a magnificent example of his lyricism.
In each line’ there is rhythm creating
enchanting music.

“The Tyger” is a contrast to the lamb of

“Songs of Innocence”. The forceful
eloquence of “The Tyger” is an antitype to
the sweet hymn of the tender infantile
sentiment of the lyric, “The Lamb”. It is an
‘enraptured song’ conveying an essential
vision of some themes which Blake
presents elsewhere in more detail. The
wonder of the poet is conveyed by the
short and successive questions. Some of
the questions have not been answered.
They are left incomplete as if the poet’s
awe and admiration were too great to
allow him to complete them.

‘The Tyger’ is the symbol of the fierce

forces of the soul. These forces as the
poet thinks are needed to break the bonds
of experience. He says that the breath of
the lion is the wisdom of God. In the
poem, we can see the reference both to
the Tiger and the Lamb. Both of these
creatures are the two aspects of the same
soul. The soul is none but God. The lamb
represents the meekness, simplicity, and
innocence of the soul while the Tiger
stands for the wrath and harsher side. In
the person of Christ, these two aspects of
the soul are found. The speaker of the
poem believes that Christ does not have
one face but several faces. The tiger is
also thought to symbolize the ‘abundant
life’ which Jesus Christ brought to life. So
it stands for regeneration and energy.
The poet wonders how God can create
such a terrible creature. He asks if the
tiger has been created by the same hand
that has created the lamb. So he thinks
that the tiger is not created in this world
but somewhere in the skies or in the
‘distant deeps’. The poet wonders how the
creator dared to fetch the fire for the eyes
of the tiger. The poet wonders at the
handiwork of God who, like a blacksmith,
sets to work on his most amazing
creation. The poet fails to understand why
God has created such a fearful creation.
The creation of such an animal must have
required a prodigious apparatus,
otherwise, the muscles of the tiger’s heart
or the deadly terror of the tiger’s brain
would not have been created. The anvil,
the furnace, the chains and the hammers
must have all been wonderful. Even the
stars, the first creations of God were
overtaken by grief and horror when they
beheld the new creation.

In the poem, there is confusion as to the

question that who has created the tiger.
The process of creation has been
conveyed in the words and phrases which,
although meaningful in their totality, do
not yield any clear elucidation of the
creator. As in other poems, Jesus Christ
has been conceived of being God and at
the same time, a prophet, Blake has not
made it clear here. It may not be God but
an unknown, supernatural spirit like
Blake’s mythical heroes, who have
fashioned the tiger.

But the crux of the poem has been put in

the stanza when the stanza threw down
their spears: “Did he who made the lamb
make thee?” These lines appear to be very
puzzling. We can arrive at no conclusion.
It may be interpreted that wrath and mercy
unite at the same point where the ultimate
reality of God is felt.