Student Question
What symbolism does William Blake use to represent experience in "The Tyger"?
Quick answer:
In "The Tyger," William Blake uses symbolism to contrast experience with innocence, as represented in "The Lamb." The tiger symbolizes the darker, fearful aspects of nature and experience, with imagery of "fearful symmetry," "dread hand," and "deadly terrors." The poem suggests a creator capable of both innocence and experience, as seen in the allusion to Satan's fall. This duality reflects the complex nature of creation, where innocence and experience coexist.
In short, the idea of experience in Blake's "The Tyger" can be thought of in contrast to the innocence of "The Lamb."
The narrator of "The Lamb" is a child who sees only the purity and innocence of the lamb, and by extension, nature. The narrator of "The Tyger" knows better. There is another side to nature, and this narrator is aware of it.
Since the same being makes both, that means there are both innocence and experience--both lamb and tiger--within the creator as well. By extension, all creatures contain elements of both lamb and tiger.
Also, as is usual in Blake's collections Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, to which both of these poems belong, Blake is dealing with different perceptions of the same thing. In the case of these poems, he presents two different perspectives of nature.
For specifics, look at the images created in "The Tyger." The tiger's symmetry is "fearful"; "dread hand" and foot; "deadly terrors." And notice stanza five: the stars cast down are an allusion to Satan being cast out of heaven, and the speaker asks if the creator that fought and won the battle for heaven, then looked at what he had created in the tiger, and smiled.
The creator of the tiger is no innocent.
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