Study Guide in ENGLISH 9A – Anglo-American Literature English in Perspective 20-May-2022

(Course Code & Title) UNIT 2 – Literature Lesson

UNIT II: LITERATURE LESSON 3 AND GRAMMAR LESSONS 4 AND 5

THE TYGER AND THE LAMB,

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After going through this paper, you should be able to:

a. Define lyric poetry;

b. Analyze the characteristic of lyric poetry; and
c. Interpret the poem “The Tyger”, and “The Lamb” by William Blake.

LEARNING CONTENTS

LYRIC POETRY

Background

Imagine you're driving along in your car when your favorite song comes on the radio.
If you're like most people, you will immediately start singing along without even realizing it.
Did you know that when this happens, you're actually singing poetry? All songs can be
considered poetry. In fact, they fall under the category of lyric poetry.

Lyric poetry first appeared in ancient Greece, where it was categorized alongside
other types of poetry such as tragedies (written in verse) and epic poems. The lyric was
much shorter, with a focus on the poet's mental state and personal themes rather than a
narrative arc.

The lyre, a harp-like instrument from which lyric poetry gets its name, is usually used
to accompany these songs, but they can also be sung to other instruments or spoken.
Sappho, one of the most well-known lyric poets of all time, was a classical musician-poet
from the Archaic Greek period.

Lyric poetry expresses the personal emotions or thoughts of the speaker, just like
the songs of today. Also, just like songs, lyric poems always have a musical quality or a
specific melody which makes it easy for you to sing along with. The term 'lyric poetry'
actually comes from the ancient Greek word lyre, which refers to the instrument in that era
that accompanied the reading of the lyric poem. Almost like the first version of a live concert.

There is always some specific mood or emotion being expressed in lyric poetry.
Often that mood is about the extremes in life, mostly love or death or some other intense
emotional experience. No matter the theme, though, all lyric poems are known for brevity,
emotional intensity, and musical quality.

Characteristics of Lyric Poetry

1. It is a short poem, characterized by simplicity in language and treatment.

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Study Guide in ENGLISH 9A – Anglo-American Literature English in Perspective 20-May-2022
(Course Code & Title) UNIT 2 – Literature Lesson

Simplicity is a prominent feature of a lyric. Every lyric is composed in such a

language that every person can understand it easily. For example, look at the songs
of modern times. Any lyric, which is simple and expresses pent-up feelings and
emotions of the poet, has an extraordinary appeal to the readers, audience, and
viewers.
2. Usually written in the first-person point of view.
3. Emotions or thoughts expressed vary but should be an emotional experience
of the poet. Intensity is also another characteristic of a lyric. Every lyric consists of
such lines, which reveal the intensity of the emotions of the author.
4. Has musical quality that could be accompanied by an instrument. Musical
quality makes it the most popular and widely used form of poetry in the history of
English literature. Every lyric is incomplete without the accompaniment of music.

THE TYGER

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?

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Study Guide in ENGLISH 9A – Anglo-American Literature English in Perspective 20-May-2022
(Course Code & Title) UNIT 2 – Literature Lesson

The Lamb
BY WILLIAM BLAKE

Little Lamb who made thee

Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.

Source: The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David E. Erdman
(Anchor
Books, 1988)

ANALYSIS:

William Blake's lyric poem, "The Tyger," is a meditation on the source and intent of
creation. His words create striking images used to question religion and contrast good and
evil. Among his most famous poems, "The Tyger" was published in a collection titled,
"Songs of Experience" in 1794. Though not well known in his own era, today Blake is an
important poet of the Romantic Age.

The Tyger by William Blake is taken from The Songs of Experience. The tiger itself
is a symbol of the fierce forces in the soul that are necessary to break the bonds of
experience. The tiger also stands for a divine spirit that will not be subdued by restrictions
but will arise against established rules and conventions.

The Tyger is a highly symbolic poem based on Blake’s personal philosophy of

spiritual and intellectual revolution by individuals. The speaker in the poem is puzzled at the
sight of a tiger in the night, and he asks it a series of questions about its fierce appearance
and about the creator who made it. But the context and everything in it must be interpreted
according to Blake’s philosophy of symbolic myths about human life, society, and spiritual
revolution.

It is also a romantic poem to some extent written by the pre-romantic William Blake.

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Study Guide in ENGLISH 9A – Anglo-American Literature English in Perspective 20-May-2022
(Course Code & Title) UNIT 2 – Literature Lesson

The ‘Tyger’ is a symbolic tiger that represents the fierce force in the human soul. It is created
in the fire of imagination by the god who has a supreme imagination, spirituality, and ideals.
The anvil, chain, hammer, furnace, and fire are parts of the imaginative artist’s powerful
means of creation. The imaginative artist is synonymous with the creator. A man with a
revolutionary spirit can use such powers to fight against the evils of experience.

The poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome tiger what kind of divine being
could have created it: “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful symmetry?”
Each subsequent stanza contains further questions, all of which refine this first one. From
what part of the cosmos could the tiger’s fiery eyes have come, and who would have dared
to handle that fire? What sort of physical presence, and what kind of dark craftsmanship,
would have been required to “twist the sinews” of the tiger’s heart? The speaker wonders
how once that horrible heart “began to beat,” its creator would have had the courage to
continue the job. Comparing the creator to a blacksmith, he ponders about the anvil and
the furnace that the project would have required and the smith who could have wielded
them. And when the job was done, the speaker wonders, how would the creator have felt?
“Did he smile his work to see?” Could this possibly be the same being who made the lamb?

First Quatrain

The tiger initially appears as a strikingly sensuous image. However, as the poem
progresses, it takes on a symbolic character and comes to embody the spiritual and moral
problem the poem explores: perfectly beautiful and yet perfectly destructive, Blake’s tiger
becomes the symbolic center for an investigation into the presence of evil in the world.
Since the tiger’s remarkable nature exists both in physical and moral terms, the speaker’s
questions about its origin must also encompass both physical and moral dimensions. The
poem’s series of questions repeatedly ask what sort of physical creative capacity the
“fearful symmetry” of the tiger bespeaks; assumedly only a very strong and powerful being
could be capable of such a creation.

The smithy represents a traditional image of artistic creation; here Blake applies it to
the divine creation of the natural world. The “forging” of the tiger suggests a very physical,
laborious, and deliberate kind of making; it emphasizes the awesome physical presence of
the tiger and precludes the idea that such a creation could have been in any way
accidentally or haphazardly produced. It also continues from the first description of the tiger
the imagery of fire with its simultaneous connotations of creation, purification, and
destruction. The speaker stands in awe of the tiger as a sheer physical and aesthetic
achievement, even as he recoils in horror from the moral implications of such a creation;
for the poem addresses not only the question of who could make such a creature as the
tiger, but who would perform this act. This is a question of creative responsibility and of will,
and the poet carefully includes this moral question with the consideration of physical power.
Note, in the third stanza, the parallelism of “shoulder” and “art,” as well as the fact that it is
not just the body but also the “heart” of the tiger that is being forged. The repeated use of
the word “dare” to replace the “could” of the first stanza introduces a dimension of aspiration
and willfulness into the sheer might of the creative act.
The reference to the lamb in the penultimate stanza reminds the reader that a tiger
and a lamb have been created by the same God, and raises questions about the
implications of this. It also invites a contrast between the perspectives of “experience” and
“innocence” represented here and in the poem “The Lamb.” “The Tyger” consists entirely
of unanswered questions, and the poet leaves us in awe at the complexity of creation, the

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Study Guide in ENGLISH 9A – Anglo-American Literature English in Perspective 20-May-2022
(Course Code & Title) UNIT 2 – Literature Lesson

sheer magnitude of God’s power, and the inscrutability of divine will. The perspective of
experience in this poem involves a sophisticated acknowledgment of what is unexplainable
in the universe, presenting evil as the prime example of something that cannot be denied
but will not withstand facile explanation, either. The open awe of “The Tyger” contrasts with
the easy confidence, in “The Lamb,” of a child’s innocent faith in a benevolent universe.

Fifth Quatrain

Similarly, the context of a person asking questions and getting puzzles at the tiger
symbolically represents the final beginning of the realization and appreciation of the forces
of his own soul. This individual will then begin his personal spiritual revolution. The poem
is taken from the “Songs of Experience” which means the adult world of corruption,
immorality, and suffering. Passing through the first phase of “Innocence” or the pure child’s-
like world or mentality in “Songs of Innocence”, and then having experienced the opposite
world of experience, the speaker in this poem has begun to recognize the suppressed
power of his soul and realize its necessity. He is himself puzzled at its fearful faces and
begins to realize that he had gotten, not only the lamb-like humility but also the tiger-like
energy for fighting back against the domination of the evil society. The qualities of the
original and pure man must be freed by using this tiger-like force of the soul. Blake’s
imaginative man or creative artist is a rebellious being. It also represents the double
potential in any human being.
The poem is comprised of six quatrains in rhymed couplets. The meter is regular
and rhythmic, its hammering beat suggestive of the smithy that is the poem’s central image.
The simplicity and neat proportions of the poem’s form perfectly suit its regular structure, in
which a string of questions all contribute to the articulation of a single, central idea.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Directions:
• Do Literature 1, 2, and 3 (pages 146-147) in a google document.
• Ensure that the google document is attached as File Printout, i.e., the file
can be viewed in the Google classroom Assignment tab itself and does
not require the viewer to request access or download it; and
• Remember that output submitted after the due date will be given a 10-
point deduction.

REFERENCES

Poets, A. of A. (n.d.). Lyric Poetry | Academy of American Poets. Poets.org.

https://poets.org/glossary/lyric-poetry

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Study Guide in ENGLISH 9A – Anglo-American Literature English in Perspective 20-May-2022
(Course Code & Title) UNIT 2 – Literature Lesson

Sarkar, S., & Sarkar, S. (2021, September 9). Lyric Poetry | Definition, Examples,
Characteristics, Types. Eng-Literature. https://www.eng-
literature.com/2021/09/lyric-poetry-definition-examples-characteristics-
types.html#Characteristics_of_Lyric_Poetry
The Tyger" by William Blake The Tyger" by William Blake. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19,
2022, from http://patnacollege.org/pdf/apr2020/The%20Tyger-
%20william%20Blake.pdf

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