When
analyzing a poem, it can be helpful to put what the poem contains in contrast to what one would
reasonably expect to find. This is especially helpful with Blake, who seems highly self-aware of
his poetic style and .
In English, the benchmark poetic line since at least
the Renaissance has been iambic pentameter (five feet of breve/stress rhythm). This is what we
see in Shakespeare's sonnets andand it is by far the most common poetic line in English. It is
the natural rhythm of English speech, the natural beating of the human heart, the way we walk.
It's just hard-wired into our sense of sound and rhythm.
In
"Tyger," however, Blake gives us lines of trochaic feet (stress/breve), which are the
opposite of iambic:
Tyger Tyger, burning
bright,In the forests of the night;What immortal
hand or eye,Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Generally, trochaic rhythm can be a little off-putting because
it feels familiar but just a little wrong. Note that this is the same beat Poe uses...
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