The central question
that lies behind this famous poem concerns the origins of evil. The tiger in this poem is seen
as a pure expression of malevolence and power in its strength and majesty. However, when read
with its companion poem, entitled "The Lamb," the speaker is greatly troubled that
both are part of God's created natural order and yet both are so incredibly different in terms
of form and power. Thus the speaker finds himself profoundly disconcerted about the presentation
of the tiger and has to ask himself, again and again, "What immortal hand or eye / Dare
frame they fearful symmetry?"
The quot you have highlighted represents
two more rhetorical questions that discuss the origins of the tiger and, by extension, of evil
in the world. The speaker finds it difficult to understand how God could have "smiled"
to see the tiger, because it is such a powerful and ferocious creature. He has to ask whether
the tiger originates from the same God that made the lamb, as the two creatures are so
incredibly different.
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