William Blake - “The Tyger”
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

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?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

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?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake’s poem The Tyger uses the sound devices of rhyme and meter in the poem. This is a useful tool when writing a poem because it causes the reader to pay more attention to the poem. This is true because if a poet establishes a definite rhyme pattern and we become accustomed to it, then it is perhaps confusing when the rhyme pattern breaks down. This causes us to pay more attention to what has been written in the poem. The poet relies on our ear to alert us to the change in the pattern. When a poet changes the rhyme scheme we get caught flat-footed which causes us to pay extra attention to the poem. This is especially true in the case of the poem The Tyger. In the poem William uses the tool of sound to cause the reader to listen more tentatively. An example of this can be found in the first few lines where he writes “Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night; what immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” William uses rhyming to catch his audience off guard as he ask the question “what kind of God would make a creature like the tiger?” the use of this tool is effective because it caught me off guard and caused me to think about the question that he asks.