Revise ’The Tyger’ by William Blake

Summary of key points... Trochaic tetramter creates a pounding rhythm. Six quatrains, all asking questions in rhyming couplets. Tone of awe, wonder, amazement, fear. Repetition of “tiger” and sentence openings creates chanting effect. Huge spiritual questions about nature of evil and God asked in poem. Tiger symbolises terror – who “dared” create it? Extended metaphor of blacksmith used to describe creator at work. This image also connotes hell. Blake daring to challenge the existence of all-powerful, lov