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The student of Blake's moods might construct from the fragmentary record of the years after 1800 a theory of the pulse of Blake's whole mental life; might suspect that Blake was swung his life long up and down to the rhythm of the alternation from elation to depression to elation (Bruce 86) BLAKE, in other words, was neurotic. He fell into "melancholy, -- melancholy without any real reason"; he oscillated violently from moods of deepest depression to moods of highest exaltation; hours of perfect and entire confidence and certainty were followed by hours of despair (Bruce 89) From these two quotes we have an insight into what drove Blakes poetry. He may have suffered from manic-depression. In looking at his biography, Blakes sanity was in question.
Palmer, a contemporary, says of him, "I remember William Blake in the quiet consistency of his daily life, as one of the sanest, if not the most thoroughly sane man I have ever known. " Some of Blakes poetry seems to illustrate the extremes under which Blake suffered and how his moods swung from sublime elation and spiritual enlightenment (The Lamb) to deep depression and fear (The Tyger). While Blakes work stands on its own, it is best understood in light of his visual arts and his personal history of probably mental illness. Today such illness can often be controlled with medication, the sufferers all agree that the medication takes something from them, and so we possibly should be thankful that Blake did not have these available. Each of his works in isolation have merit, but the body of work as a whole, with each poem seen also in connection with the rest of his work, and in the light of his personal life, shows brilliance which we must admire.
How much creative work in this world is done by those who skirt the edge of madness. Blakes work is still studied, and some are beginning to look at the poetry and the art together as a portrait of a brilliant artist. Bruce says that, n his mind he sailed as far as America and Jerusalem, as far as Heaven and Hell. The creative impulse which drove him on his mental voyages found double expression, now in poetry, now in drawing and engraving. The Tiger burns bright in one field against The Ancient of Days in the other; The Songs of Innocence make strange pattern with the Illustrations to Job. Letters and marginalia open the shutters, show what was, at times, going on in his mind. (Bruce 7) The poem, The Tyger, was in sharp contrast to the earlier poem, The Lamb.
The Tyger seems completed by the addition of the previous poem, as it also completes The Lamb. That it is part of the collection entitled Songs of Experience gives a hint to the workings of Blakes mind. It is not secret that Blake deplored the encroachment of the industrial revolution into the peace of existence, and that he was profoundly influenced by his knowledge of the French Revolution. The Tyger could be a reaction to either of these or both.
The Tyger is definitely the symbol of passion, and the expression of extreme emotional turmoil within the poet. From the earliest recorded time, we see demons with flashing or glowing eyes. In the knowledge that Blakes Christianity was unique with him and a result of his visions, one might conclude that the Lamb was the symbol for Christ and the Tyger was the symbol for Satan. This idea lends tremendous power to this line, Did He who made the Lamb also make thee? According to the story in Genesis, God made all the angels, of which Satan was the highest and most wonderful. So it is not a far jump to conclude that the Tyger symbolized Lucifer.
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Research essay sample on Blakes Poetry Blakes Work Tyger
