Blake, William | Paul Miner (essay date 1962)
Paul Miner (essay date 1962)
SOURCE: "The Tyger': Genesis & Evolution in the Poetry of William Blake," in Criticism, Vol. IV, No. 1, Winter, 1962, pp. 59-73.
[In the following essay, Miner comments on the literary influences on "The Tyger" and the poem's relationship, thematically and symbolically, to Blake's later works.]
One of the great poetic structures of the eighteenth century is William Blake's "The Tyger," a profound experiment in form and idea. The sibilants and occlusive consonants which permeate the poem and the consistent repetition of diphthongs and vowels give "The Tyger" a singular force. The word "tyger" itself begins with an explosive consonant which is followed by an emphatic vowel and a pseudoonomatopoetic "grrr"; the word uniquely integrates a visual object along with a relevant auricular effect.
While it is difficult to attribute any specific occasion or literary source to the striking imagery of the...
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