V6 Alquin william Blake introduction + tyger

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 6

William Blake introduction + The Tyger

How well did you see the apple in your mind's eye? 0 = not at all, 10 = photo realistically.

010

assignment

Write down facts about Blake while you watch the documentary. 

Use key words. 

Write down 3 facts about Blake

• Poet and artist (trained as an artist). 
• He illustrated his books himself.
  
• Happy, but childless marriage
  
• Radical political ideas + hyperphantasia 
• Pronounced failure during life
  
• Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience
  
• The Lamb and The Tyger
  
• Two poems titled The Chimney Sweeper.
  

William Blake

Illusion:

dreamworld - escape from reality - optimistic outlook on life

Disillusion:

bitterness - distrust - accusation - awareness of circumstances - sarcasm

www.litcharts.com

• By detailing the tiger’s fearsomeness and by directly comparing it to the innocent and gentle lamb, the poem hints that perhaps both creatures are necessary parts of God’s creation. 
• Perhaps without fear and danger, there could be no love and joy.

Next: 

• answer the questions in this LessonUp
• Answer the questions from your book and check your answers via the LessonUp.  

Tomorrow:

Bring headphones!

You will get an assignment that includes a video.

Hand in your finished assignment during next week's lesson on Wednesday. 

Which of the following statements best summarizes how Blake describes the tiger?

1. Blake depicts the tiger as a fearsome, dangerous animal that should be avoided.
2. Blake describes the tiger in terms of its light and dark elements.
3. Blake depicts the tiger as an awe-inspiring creature made artfully with powerful elements.
4. Blake describes the tiger as a peaceful part of nature that is unchallenged by its own origins.

How does the line “Did He who make the Lamb make thee?” contribute to the the development of the poem?

1. It implies that the tiger is actually a gentle creature like the lamb’s namesake, Jesus Christ.
2. It implies that God is cruel for making a dangerous tiger that can tear an innocent lamb to pieces.
3. It questions the judgment of a creator that would create such vastly different animals with such different components.
4. It reveals the creator’s incomprehensible motivation to create both a powerful creature like the tiger and a weak creature like the lamb.

Which of the following statements best describes the author’s purpose in this poem?

1. The author aims to explore the question of existence and how things came to be as they are.
2. The author aims to talk about biology and evolution by posing questions in a spiritual way.
3. The author aims to reveal a gap in human knowledge regarding where life came from.
4. The author aims to prove that only a higher power could create such a magnificent creature as the tiger.

Which characteristics of Romantic poetry can you find in this poem?

What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Who do the immortal hand and eye belong to?

1. The Universe
2. The Christian God
3. Greek god/goddess
4. Mother Earth

What poetic devices can you find in the lines: What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

1. simile, onomatopoeia, alliteration
2. alliteration, metaphor, enjambment
3. enjambment, onomatopoeia, metaphor
4. metaphor, simile, alliteration

Did He who made the lamb make thee?------ Who does the lamb refer to?

1. Jesus
2. A lamb is a lamb is a lamb
3. An innocent human being
4. A harmless human being

• 1 Archaic language was commonly used in a religious context in Blake’s time. It is the language and the spelling of the King James Bible of 1611. By using that old-fashioned spelling Blake creates a trusted, religious atmosphere. This correct, as this poem concerns the functioning of God. The title includes a reference to religion.
• 2 a. quatrains (stanzas of 4 lines each)
  
• b. rhymed couplets (aabb)
  
• c. every line has a number of metrical feet, composed of 2 syllables, of which the first one is always emphasised and the second is not (trochee)
  

• 3 a. God is represented as a smith in a smithy
  
• b. The regular metre of the trochee makes us think of the hammer blows in the smithy

• 4 Rhetorical questions. The answer is usually encompassed in the question.

• 5 The tiger. Perhaps indirectly also to the reader.

• 6 a. burning bright (refers to the clear colours of the tiger) contrasting with the forests of the night (hostile, unknown).
  
• b. God. By the word 'immortal'.
• c. The tiger's stripes OR the tiger looks equally frightening on both sides (left and right).

• 7 Where does the fire / glow in the eyes of the tiger come from? As if someone has given the fire to the tiger. Compare the story of Prometheus who stole the fire from the gods.

• 8 a. the tiger
  
• b. He shows that God is literally making the tiger.
  

• 9 a. hammer, furnace, anvil.
  
• b. alliteration (dread – dare – deadly). In other stanzas too.
  

• 10 a. line 1 of stanza 5: it became light (spears of light) line 2: rain Together: the beginning of creation

•  b. Was God truly happy with what he had made, had created? Was that the intention?

• 11 ‘Could’ in stanza 1 and ‘Dare’ in the last stanza. Dare is far more powerful than Could

 

BYE!