The childlike quality of the poem seems to be an important factor, one that is emphasized by the illustration. While the questions about the creation of the Tyger (apparently through industrial processes), put the questioner in apparent awe of the Tyger, the illustration shows a lack of emotion: the Tyger seems dazed and indifferent, certainly not the terrifying, awe-inspiring being described in the poem. But at the same time it seems that the tiger is only that position because it is ready to strike. With its bulky build and robotic frame the creation of God would tear any animal to shreds. Because Blake doesn’t like industrial processes, it seems that the creation of such a terrifying being as the Tyger could not have come from the same original, natural creation of the Lamb. This might be another childish view: if the God who created the Lamb, also created the Tyger, He might not be an entirely benevolent deity, and that would be a scary thought for a child. The poem is obviously more impressed with the tiger because a lamb is far from being capable of performing some of the actions a tiger can. The descriptions of the furnace, hammer, and anvil, and the general construction of the Tyger, might be a child’s way of imagining how God could create something.
The effect of the final stanza is incredibly important, because of the change in wording. At the beginning of the poem, the child was asking: “what immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry” but after a battery of questions involving the Tyger’s creation/creator, the child asks, “what immortal hand or eye, dare frame they symmetry?”
-Justin Arredondo
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