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TheTiger
Words by William Blake (1757-1827)
Music by Sherri Porterfield (1958 - )
Background
The original poem, published in Songs of Experience by William Blake in 1794 is printed
below.
Tyger, tyger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
“William Blake was an English poet, painter and engraver who is now regarded
as one of the earliest and greatest figures of Romanticism. He is probably best
known for his hand-illustrated series of lyrical and epic poems, the most famous
of these being Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794)
“In these two collections, it was Blake’s desire to show “the two contrary states of
the human soul.” Songs of Innocence represents the childlike feelings of life,
symbolized by the Lamb. The corresponding symbol in Songs of Experience is the
Tiger, which represents energy, strength, cruelty and life as it is actually
portrayed. It is interesting to note that Blake originally spelled the word “tiger”
with a “y” instead of with an “I”.1 This may be due to the fact that he wanted to
suggest to the reader a visual expression of a trigger or a coiled spring pertinent to
the tense and awful tiger.
1
This statement about the “y” in the word “tyger” is not the last word. Some have
suggested that Blake simply used an archaic spelling of the word as English spelling
during his lifetime was not yet quite standardized. However, he spells the same word
“tiger” in other poems, so his choice of the “y” is likely deliberate. Others have suggested
that this spelling reflects the “otherness” of the animal in question – not really a tiger as
we know it.
© Copyright 2016 Elizabeth Pauly. All rights reserved.
1
“Throughout his life, Blake was ignored and considered to be insane by the
public. He lived his life in poverty and died a poor and neglected man.”2
Much has been written about this poem. I won’t begin to analyze it here – others have
done a much better job (see below).
The following site, http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Tiger.html, has a
terrific scholarly analysis of the poem. I also found this site,
http://www.pathguy.com/tyger.htm, to be very helpful.
The online Blake Archive contains complete reproductions of the original collections.
These are wonderful to look at, in particular because he hand-illustrated the poems.
http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=songsie.c.illbk.50&j
ava=yes.
ProgramNotes
The Tiger is Sherri Porterfield’s setting of William Blake’s The Tyger, from his
collection of poetry and illustrations, Songs of Experience (1794). The original poem is
reprinted below.
Recordings
Beautiful recording on YouTube of the Friendswood Junior Varsity Treble Choir.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwXDdl4JTug.
2
Porterfield, Sherri. “The Tiger”. Belwin-Mills, Miami, 1991, 3.
© Copyright 2016 Elizabeth Pauly. All rights reserved.
2
Analysis
Key: C minor
meter: mainly 6/8 with some changes
SECTION
intro
Tiger! Tiger! …
MEASURE
1-7
8-17
In what distant
18-27
deeps or skies …
What the
28-37
hammer…
When the stars
threw down…
Tiger, tiger…
38-48
coda
60-70
49-59
EVENT AND SCORING
piano intro – contains musical ideas from melody
Theme A: Tiger, tiger melody – S has melody, A
and B harmonize; homophonic texture
Theme B: S still has melody while others
harmonize
Theme A used with different text – slight
variations in arrangement, but basically the same
as the previous Theme A setting
Theme C – S still has melody while others
harmonize; modulation to d minor
Theme A: now in d minor, but arrangement
remains fairly close to the original introduction of
Theme A
based on repetitions of opening phrase of Theme
A
© Copyright 2016 Elizabeth Pauly. All rights reserved.
3