Symbolism in William Blake's "The Tyger"/ Use of Symbols in William Blake's "The Tyger", the theme poem of his 'Songs of Experience'

Question: Symbols in Blake’s poem The Tyger.

Answer: William Blake, the precursor of Romanticism as well as a mystic, was the son of an engraver. The Lamb is the theme poem of his Songs of Experience while The Tyger is the theme poem of his Songs of Innocence. ‘Innocence’ and ‘Experience’ represent ‘the two contrary states of human soul’ altogether. The tiger in Blake’s poem is a ferocious beast and an apocalyptic animal. It is made of fire. It symbolises Experience. It is rather opposed to the meek and mild lamb symbolising Innocence. The tiger ‘burning bright’ is not evil. However, it fosters the force to conquer evil. He is rather symbolic of Christ as He fought against evil to achieve the higher state of Innocence. In utmost amazement and awe, the speaker utters, "Tyger, Tyger, burning bright/ In the forests of the night/In what immortal hand or eye/ Was framed thy fearful symmetry?" The Tyger is constructed in the form of a series of questions rather than statements. From the very outset, the tiger is associated with fire, with buried allusions to the myth of Icarus and the myth of Prometheus. The symbol of fire represents the purifying aspect of wrath or anger. Such indignation is one of the preponderant qualities of the tiger and its maker who resembles a legendary blacksmith. The making of the tiger in the workshop of the blacksmith is detailed out by Blake in Stanza IV of his poem in the form of bifurcated lines. This suggests how Blake’s tiger must be a vision essentially mystical and metaphorical. The maker of the tiger working with the hammer, the chain, the furnace, and the anvil must be a strong personality of the dreadful maker of the dreaded tiger. Blake’s poem is constructed in six regular stanzas of four lines each, six quatrains proceeding in a trajectory of childlike questions. The Lamb and The Tyger, thus, show ‘the two contrary states of human soul’. The lamb’s innocence, on the one hand, is associated with the child’s vision of life before it gains the knowledge of evil. The tiger, on the other hand, symbolises the state of Experience, the conscience of evil and also the courage to combat evil to attain the higher state of Innocence. Blake’s symbolism with imagery is borrowed from classical mythology as well as from the Bible. It works out wonderfully the contrariety between Innocence and Experience.