William Blake’s The Tiger is a poem that illustrates the worth of the individual and the power of intuition in Romantic poetry. In Romanticism, the individual remains prominent because the art focuses on the feelings of the narrator about the subject. The poem depicts the fear that the narrator holds regarding the dangerous tiger. For instance, Blake addresses the tiger in first person and shows his emotions through phrases like, “What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?” Additionally, Blake’s work shows the poet’s intuition and emotions towards the creation of a dangerous world by a higher power. He fails to express his arguments logically but a reader notes that the author feels skeptical about the creation of dangerous tigers in a world with meek lambs.
William Blake differentiates his understanding of an innocent childhood from darker experiences using poetry. In The Lamb, the author uses the image of a pure and innocent woolly lamb created by God. The work emphasizes the beauty allied to nature. However, in The Tiger, Blake shows his experiences with a tougher life where individuals live in fear. The tiger instills dread among travelers. The contradiction in both poems shows Blake’s views on experience and innocence.
The Lamb and The Tiger demonstrate the Romantic ideal that man’s inherent goodness is corrupted by society. The lamb represents an ideal person in the society with purity and a strong moral code. However, the tiger signifies a corrupted individual that loses their purity and morality. The work reflects the Romantic view of the world where poets used literature to depict a perfect world while the society experienced political and social strife.