Mr. Lutz English 12AP William Blake’s “The Tiger”

To fully understand Blake’s metaphor, perform a paraphrase of each stanza. While doing so, note the figurative developments. I have keyed your attention toward Blake’s use of certain devices.

Stanza 1 Tiger! Tiger! burning bright ______In the forests of the night, ______What immortal hand or eye ______Could frame thy fearful symmetry? ______

In his address to the tiger, Blake illustrates the use of what device? ______What is the connotation of “fearful symmetry”? ______What rhetorical question does Blake offer, which becomes the central focus of the poem?______

Stanza 2 In what distant deeps or skies ______Burnt the fire of thine eyes? ______On what wings dare he aspire? [line 7] ______What the hand dare seize the fire? [line 8] ______

What allusion is made in line 7? ______What allusion is made in line 8? ______Who is “he”? ______What rhetorical question does Blake offer? ______

Stanza 3 And what shoulder, and what art, ______Could twist the sinews of thy heart? ______And when thy heart began to beat, ______What dread hand forged thy dread feet? ______

What does “dread” mean? ______What is the connotation of “heart”? ______How is “shoulder” synecdoche? ______Identify the negative diction of the stanza ______What rhetorical question does Blake offer? ______

Stanza 4 What the hammer? what the chain? ______In what furnace was thy brain? ______What the anvil? what dread grasp ______Dare its deadly terrors clasp? ______

What allusion is made in the imagery of the furnace? ______What are the connotations of the diction used? ______How is “brain” synecdoche? ______Reword the rhetorical question into a less poetic, less awkward one. ______

Stanza 5 When the stars threw down their spears, [line 17] ______And watered heaven with their tears, [line 18] ______Did he smile his work to see? ______Did he who made the Lamb make thee? ______

Are there allusions in lines 17 and 18? What might they be? ______Who is “he”? ______How do you know Blake doesn’t mean a regular lamb in line 20? ______Who is “the Lamb” in this allusion?______Why is it such a fitting allusion? ______What is the rhetorical question Blake offers? ______How is this a paradox? ______

Stanza 6 Tiger! Tiger! burning bright ______In the forests of the night, ______What immortal hand or eye ______Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? ______

How does the diction change made from Stanza 1 affect the general tone of the entire poem? ______What, then, is the central rhetorical question Blake offers? ______

Metaphorically, then, Blake compares a tiger to ______.

Now, if I were to ask you to spend 30 minutes addressing how Blake makes use of the metaphor of the tiger (how he develops it and to what effect), show me your plan of attack on the back of this page.