Thoughts on love, life, writing and friends.

Friday, 8 November 2013

Blake shows how Jesus Christ creates the subject who has the same name as the poem’s title. However, there are inconsistencies in his other works of Songs of Innocence and of Experience, including on plate seven, where the writing and artwork together do not convey a symmetrical analysis of the ‘sheep.’ This leads to the realization that the natural order of creation includes the experience of peace and affliction. As well, it is doubtful to Blake that Jesus creates the subject of the plate called “The Tyger.” This ambiguity between the ‘Tyger’ and its divine connection to Jesus Christ represents a clash in the natural system of creation, which can also be seen in the plate’s artwork. Blake’s drawing of the ‘Tyger’ does not parallel his description of the creature’s ‘fearful symmetry’ but looks passive and unthreatening. Consequently, it seems that a suitably drawn lion would be a more appropriate subject for this poem since a lion is a fearsome creature. Proverbs 30:30 states, “The lion which is strongest among beasts, / and turneth not away any,” shows this fearful image of the lion. The Holy Bible (KJV) not only describes the lion in the way Blake does the ‘Tyger,’ but parallels the lion to Jesus Christ, as is the ‘Lamb’ in Songs of Innocence and of Experience. By organizing his plates this way, Blake asserts that such animals as a lion and the ‘Little Lamb’ represent the natural order of created life, whereas the ‘Tyger’ represents perversions of this order by man.

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