The Nature of Creation

One of the main themes of “The Tyger” is the nature of creation: who is responsible for the creation of different forms of life, and where and how this creator carries out the act of creation. In discussing the creation of the titular Tyger, Blake considers various forms of creation, including religious, artisanal, and industrial. Blake takes as a given the godly status of the Tyger’s creator when he asks in the opening stanza “What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” (3-4). The use of the word “frame” to indicate the act of creation draws on the archaic meaning of this word as fitting parts together to forge something new. The second through fourth stanzas of the poem appropriately describe the creation of individual parts of the Tyger — its eyes, heart, and brain, respectively — with which the creator will...