"The Tyger" Ana Melching
             5-8-99
             Does god create both gentle and fearful creatures? If he does
             what right does he have? Both of these rhetorical questions are
             asked by William Blake in his poem "The Tyger." The poem takes
             the reader on a journey of faith, questioning god and his nature. The poem
             completes a cycle of questioning the creator of the tyger, discussing how it
             could have been created, and then returns to questioning the creator again.
             Both questions about the tyger's creator are left unanswered. William Blake
             uses rhythm, rhyme, and poetic devices to create a unique effect and to
             parallel his theme in his work "The Tyger."
             William Blake's choice of rhythm is important to his poem
             "The Tyger" because it parallels the theme of the poem, that the
             tyger may have been made by god or another harsher creator. Most
             of the poem is written in trochaic tetrameter as can be seen in line
             three, when Blake says, "What immortal hand or eye." This rhythm is
             very harsh sounding, exemplifying the very nature of the tyger.
             Some of the lines in the poem were written in iambic tetrameter,
             such as in line ten, when Blake says, "Could twist the sinews of thy heart? ."
             Iambic tetrameter has a much softer sounding beat
             than does trochaic tetrameter. This implies the gentle nature of
             god, and if he could create such a beast. The last word of each
             quatrain is written in a spondee. This helps to create a unique symmetry
             and to parallel the "fearful symmetry" of a tyger.
             William Blake's use of rhyme greatly affects his work "The
             Tyger." The entire poem is written in couplets. Couplets contain
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