The Tyger

I love history. If I ever go back to college get a Masters degree it will probably be in history. I am also a struggling Christian, trying to understand my place in God’s creation. There is something about exploring historical events that helps one gain a better understanding of the future and what can happen. I was looking at the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and this William Blake poem jumped out as a prime example of what happens when God is the center of your life as the entire structure of the world is changing. The Industrial Revolution replaced man with machine and removed the individual artist to eventually create mass produced consumer good. Blake put God at the center of it all as the creator of everything, from the Tyger burning bright to the innocent lamb. From the most ferocious beast known at the time to the symbol of everything pure and good in the world, God has his hand firmly at the helm.

God of power and might. Heaven and Earth are full of Your Glory. What perfect symmetry! Read on.

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

What Blake writes about on a grand, epic scale is what happens throughout our lives. It is our variousness (see previous post). Gotta love it.

Icool

Cobb