A Visit to William Blake's Inn Chapter Summary & Analysis - Poem 15, "Blake Tells the Tiger the Tale of the Tailor" Summary

Poem 15, "Blake Tells the Tiger the Tale of the Tailor" Summary

Answering the tiger's request for a tale to take away his sins and help him go to sleep, Blake tells him a moral tale to help him relax and also to see the nature of things. This is written in mostly paired rhymed couplets, but there is a refrain that adds an unrhymed line to the pattern, speaking in the voice of the tailor. This poem is written in iambic Quadra meter with in AABB form.

Stanza one opens the story, with a phrase resembling "once upon a time." This sets up a story of a tailor, who needed to build a house, but only used materials familiar to him. In this stanza, it's bat's wool, mouse fur, moleskin, and a few magical things "that glimmer, skim and dart." Stanza two sets up the refrain of the tailor, who says, "It's best to work with what I know. Shears, snip....
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