Comedian Brett Butler once said, “There are no accidents. God’s just trying to remain anonymous.” Though this was said subsequent to the publication of William Blake’s “The Tyger” or Robert Frost’s “Design,” both poems echo this quote. While in the latter, God is more of an anonymous figure than in the former, hints of his presence and intervention are strong in both works. In “Design,” Robert Frost touches upon the notion of a higher order or divine being, dancing around the idea and lightly entertaining the thought; whereas, William Blake’s “The Tyger” is much more overt and further asserts this suggestion of a God/creator. Frost and Blake utilize similar techniques and devices to suggest or advocate the existence of a greater control, a “puppet master” perhaps. Through the employment of animal and nature themes; exploiting the method of rhetorical questioning; and providing unconventional imagery of nature-- the two poets, either explicitly or shrewdly, insinuate the presence of a superior control that which governs everything, from our lives to that of a tenacious tiger or a miniscule moth.
Both “Design” and “The Tyger” display strong nature and animal themes. The protagonist (if you will) of one being a “dimpled spider” and the other a tiger, respectively. Light and dark imagery are prevalent in both compositions. Frost pit’s a white moth against the dark of night in line 12 of “Design.” In “The Tyger,” Blake sets the tiger “burning bright” against “the forests of the night” as well. In his sonnet, Frost establishes a dominantly snow-white setting of the natural, day-to-day occurrence of a spider’s repast. He establishes this lasting scene before proposing to the reader the concept of a higher order following the volta of the poem. Readers are taken from a picturesque panorama of pure simplicity to the mind-boggler of the century (is there a God?). In this way, Frost first entrances his reader with this seemingly harmless scene, dressed in the innocent veneer of whiteness before introducing the darker meat of the poem, the portion that raises insight and questions (which Frost strategically chooses to leave unanswered). In the same way that Frost hits us with the oh-so-irregular image of a white spider, Blake strikes readers with the thought of a “tyger burning bright.” Instantly, you are made to comprehend the vivacity of this tiger, the central subject of the poem; its “orange-ness” takes on a whole new height. In contrast to Frost, however, Blake chooses to at once cut to business-- immediately ruminating over this tiger’s existence. He begins with the strong image of a burning tiger and continues to pummel readers as he hurls byzantine queries this way and that in nearly every other line of the poem.
Frost, too, unleashes the tool of rhetorical questioning from his arsenal, though he also deliberately puts to use the method of not answering the questions he himself poses. This way, he lays this responsibility on the reader-- leaving much left to the imagination. Frost only implies to enough to provide readers with a basis to ponder the ever-baffling question of: “is there something, or someone, more?” In “The Tyger,” Blake is not only more brutal and upfront with his use of rhetorical questions; he also answers these questions (with more questions, “Did He smile His work to see?”) In the first four stanzas of the poem, Blake’s refers to a divine being which is yet to be actualized, as the “he” refers to is yet to become a proper noun, this changes in the fifth stanza where he chooses to answer the proposed questions and dubs this greater power as “He.” Blake is also more apparent in his reference when he alludes to “the lamb,” an animal that is commonly associated with God in this context. These two poems suggest the existence of a God to varying degrees; similarly, they indicate his/her divine intervention as well.
The image of nature that Frost sets up in such an unnatural light is so intentional in its set-up that it certainly raises a flag for readers; none of this is by accident. The poem suggests that behind even the most trifling of events there is a particular purpose, some form of a design-- a “method to the madness.” Likewise, Blake suggests a certain “design” behind the creation of the tiger as well. He addresses the tiger in the poem asking, “What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?” This line is later repeated as the last line of the poem, thought instead of “could” Blake uses the stronger verb “dare.” Throughout the poem, Blake insinuates that this tiger is something like a work of art, pinpointing its particular features and in the third stanza paralleling its creator as a blacksmith of sorts, “What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was why brain? What the anvil?” Obviously, the creation of this tiger was something much beyond just intentional, this involved thorough pre-meditation on the creator’s part. The intent with which the tiger was produced, the machination underlying a spider’s everyday meal-- the intricacy implied in both events are then meant to imply the existence of a driving force behind them.
On second thought, these two poems actually have a common protagonist-- God, the spider and tiger only serving as sub-characters subject to the shared protagonist’s intervention. Frost and Blake employ similar tactics in their works but differ in that Frost chooses to take the path of power in subtlety, while Blake takes a contrasting course in his similar quest to corroborate God’s presence.
No comments:
Post a Comment