-A new interpretation of Blake's poem Tiger.
An Xiaohong
Tiger is a well-known and thought-provoking poem by British romantic poet Blake. The vivid poetic image and unique sonorous rhythm of the tiger are loved by readers, and the mysterious symbolic meaning of the tiger is concerned by literary critics. Critics generally tend to think that Tiger is about the French Revolution, because it was published shortly after the French Revolution and is full of revolutionary images such as fire, hammer, chain, melting pot and spear. If interpreted from the perspective of class analysis in traditional criticism, the tiger is naturally regarded as a symbol of a powerful revolutionary force. There is also a view that it is to praise the greatness of the creator God. The poem really expresses awe at the tiger-maker: "What kind of immortal hands and eyes can your terrible symmetry [1] create?" In fact, the text of this poem provides us with a third possibility to interpret it. If we try to interpret this poem more deeply with new criticism and prototype criticism, we will find that Blake implicitly expresses the poet's ideas about poetry creation and romantic poetry style.
First, "tiger" matches the image of "tiger"
Blake combined copperplate printing with poetry creation. In his tiger print, the word "tiger" accounts for one-ninth of the picture, each font is five times as large as the poem, and at the bottom of the title is a portrait of a tiger, thus vividly outlining a fierce and terrible tiger image. However, the title "Tiger" is spelled with the old spelling "Tyger" instead of "tiger". Blake deliberately chose the former when both spellings were acceptable at that time, suggesting that the tiger in the poem is not only a concrete object, but also an image with "uniqueness and mystery" [2]( 106), which is a symbol. After the strange and terrible tiger image, there are two "tigers!" They are symmetrical and express strong feelings in the first line of the poem. Tiger! ".In this way, the title, painting and poem * * * outline the image of a" terrible symmetrical "tiger. "Terrible symmetry", a key word to describe the tiger's appearance, appeared in the last line of his first poem and last verse, and became a golden key to uncover the mystery of the symbolic meaning of the poem "tiger". Obviously, "terrible symmetry" is a pair of contradictory modifiers. The word "symmetry" is a vocabulary related to visual art, which means that the tiger's figure and pattern contain a proper proportion of balance beauty and formal beauty. The word "terrible" is intended to emphasize that the beauty of tiger balance is daunting, and the image of "tiger" "contains the power of stormy waves and the horror of starting a prairie fire" [2]( 106). In a word, "terrible symmetry" has become the essential feature of the image of "tiger".
The image of "tiger" is consistent with the poem "tiger" at first. The first section is almost the same as the last section, except for the imagination and the mysterious "tiger!" In the first section. "Tiger!" In the last sentence, the image evolved into the poet's realistic works Tiger and Tiger, suggesting that the creative process has been completed. In addition, "could" in the first poem and "dare" in the last poem appear symmetrically at the beginning and end of the poem, aiming to point out that the creator should have patience and courage to complete his own creation, and these two opposing States and styles must echo each other from afar. So far, this circular structure in meaning and form marks the "symmetry" in the form of tiger poetry.
Secondly, under the "symmetrical" poetic package of Tiger, there is a "terrible" poetic scene, which permeates the four poems of Tiger. Inherited the conjecture and mystery of the first sentence "Tiger": "What kind of hand or eye/created your terrible symmetry?" The second section of the poem continues to discuss the question of the first section, "Where did the fire in your eyes come from? /Why dare to grab this fire? " , but further deepened the visual image of "fire" corresponding to the majestic tiger. Regarding the archetypal image of fire, Willett pointed out in the article Symbol of Archetypal Nature that fire is "irrational suddenness and spreading" [3], that is, fire is extremely destructive. In the terrible fire, in the third quarter, the creator began to "twist the muscles of the tiger's heart" with his giant arm. The word "twist" means "violence", which responds to the terrible fire in the second quarter in action and lays the foundation for the formidable "mighty hands and feet" at the end of the third quarter. The word "fear" has both the meaning of "awesome" and "terrible" in English. In the fourth quarter, fear completely evolved into "terrible": "terrible grip" until "death terror" In the fifth section, the creator smiles at his terrible works. The creator was not intimidated by the deadly creation, but showed a satisfied smile, which showed that the creator of the tiger was more awesome than the tiger, and the "terrible" poetic scene was pushed to a climax.
At the same time, because he created a tiger symbolizing evil and destruction and a sheep symbolizing kindness and meekness, his smile gave the world permanent power in "terrible symmetry". As Blake pointed out in Marriage between Heaven and Hell, "Without comparison, there is no progress. Attraction and repulsion, rationality and vitality, love and hate are all necessary conditions for human survival [4]. " The theme of Tiger, "Terrible Symmetry", was also touched.
We have explained that the form, context and theme of tiger's poems are consistent with the images of "tiger" and "terrible symmetry". At this point, it can be confirmed that the tiger is related to poetry creation.
Second, the image of "tiger" contains poetic thoughts.
After drawing the conclusion that the image of "tiger" is about poetry creation, we slowly walked into the creation process of "tiger" and tried to further interpret the poetic thought contained in it. First crack the creator of the tiger in Tiger. In the first verse, "What kind of hands or eyes of God/created your terrible symmetry?" ("What immortal hand or eye/can frame your terrible symmetry? ) find the breakthrough point in the central sentence of this poem. The word "immortality" not only expresses doubts about the essence of "tiger", but also reflects on the immortality of tiger creators. At the same time, we know that the image of "tiger" in poetry and painting comes from Blake's "hand" and "eye". Is he immortal as a sculptor and poet? Look at the "frame" in the next line, which has two connotations: "shape" and "concept" If these two lines are connected, that is to say, the portrait of "tiger" is shaped by the hand of God, while the poem "tiger" is composed of the second vision, and its creator is Blake. The second section continues to explore the characteristics of the creator: "With what wings does he dare to fight?" (What makes him dare to yearn for wings? The English word "aspire" means eager hope and courage to pursue lofty ambitions that are difficult to achieve. The creator with this trait should not be God, because God in Christianity is omnipotent and omnipresent, and it doesn't matter whether he dares to pursue unattainable things. And this spirit of "dare to fight hard" is not the best summary of Blake's image as a pioneer of British romanticism! The poem Tiger asks the creator of the tiger until the fifth verse: "Did the lamb maker make you? "Here, the lamb not only reminds people of the son of God, but also reminds people of the poet's naive song. At the same time, you can also refer to the readers at that time [5](43). /kloc-In the 20th century, poets generally regarded readers as facing their own works, because they regarded reading as a religious activity. According to this reasoning, "You" can be understood as the poem "Tiger" included in Song of Experience. In addition, the "he" in the whole poem is lowercase. " He doesn't mean God, but a poet like God, Blake. The confirmation of the creator of the tiger in Tiger clarifies Blake's definition of a poet: a poet is not an omnipotent God; But he is immortal like God.
And why can the poet Blake have "immortal hands or eyes" like God? "With what wings does he dare to break in?"? Blake wrote in his letter: "See the universe on the beach, heaven in the wild flowers, and the army of angels singing in the oak tree [6]( 1576)." For what others see with narrow naked eyes, Blake's vision can be infinitely extended. "Put its light and sharpness into everything, it penetrates hidden things and searches for complex essence, and it doesn't need any other light to watch, but only depends on its own light" [7](55) This is the "second visual world controlled by Blake's imagination" [7](56). As a pioneer of English romantic poetry, Blake regarded imagination as the source of literary creation and the driving force of human life, pushing imagination to an unprecedented important position. In Religion without Nature and All Religions are One, Blake declared that "the ability of poetry or creation is equal to the power of prediction" [6]( 1576), and this all-encompassing and insightful power is what Blake called imagination. Here, "the imagination in Blake's religion is integrated with God" [7](54). Based on this poetic concept, Blake got the creative inspiration of God's creation in Genesis in the third, fourth and fifth sections of Tiger. With the wings of imagination, the poet Blake has divinity and divine power, and creates everything like the creator God. What kind of arm strength, what kind of magic,/successfully twist your heart. After the creator of the third section captured the creation, the creator of the fourth section imagined himself as a "blacksmith": "What kind of hammer? What kind of chain? /What kind of stove burns your brain? The "heart" and "brain" here symbolize the coexistence and opposition of perception and rationality when imagination is exerted, and the coexistence and opposition of "innocence" and "experience" in his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. At this point, Blake has completed the creation of Tiger and the process of the creation of Tiger, and the image of Tiger contains romantic poetic ideas.
Thirdly, Blake's On Poetry by Poetry.
Blake opposed neoclassicism. Blake despised the elegant, moderate and rational standards of poetry creation advocated by neoclassicism. He thought it was "undoubtedly telling an idiot something very clear". He put aside reason and regarded inspiration and imagination as "eternal shelters". The enigmatic symbolic meaning of "Tiger" in "Tiger" makes this poem of18th century resemble imagist poetry of 20th century, which fully shows Blake's complete break with neoclassicism full of epigrams. At the same time, he boldly broke the rules of classical poetry in art, and four iambic couplets or iambic couplets used from beginning to end in Tiger replaced the five iambic heroic couplets stipulated by neoclassicism. Moreover, the four-tone part of most lines is incomplete and ends with an extra stressed syllable, which obviously does not conform to the norms in neoclassicism.
Tiger!
Tiger!
Bright combustion
In the forest at night,
What are my/mortal hands or eyes?
Can your fear/complete symmetry be formed?
In addition, neoclassicism pursues harmony, symmetry and aesthetic values, while Blake seems to prefer a lofty emotion. This emotion stems from a kind of fear, which is also the reason why a formidable tiger image appears on paper in Tiger. Edmund Burk thought in The Source of Lofty and Beautiful Philosophy: "The untamed power is noble, because it comes from the gloomy forest and comes to us from the roaring wilderness in the form of a lion, a tiger, a leopard or a rhinoceros [8]."
On poetry by poetry is not unique to Blake. There is indeed a phenomenon of "commenting on poetry by poetry" in English romantic poetry [5](43), but we have always turned a blind eye to it for a long time. As an implicit theme, it is not as obvious as the nature, democracy and freedom that poets pay attention to, nor is it a topic that any poet always pays attention to, so I am afraid that only careful readers can find it. For example, Wordsworth's tintern abbey, Coleridge's Ode to Depression, Shelley's ode to the west wind and Keats' Ode to an Ancient Greek Urn are all carriers of the poet's poetic theory.
This paper only takes the English romantic poet Blake's Tiger as an example to interpret the phenomenon of "discussing poetry with poetry". Of course, poetry transcends time and space, and transcends fixed and limited interpretations. The interpretation made in this paper is just one of many interpretations.
refer to
Blake. Blake's poem [M]. Zhang chiheng, translated. Shanghai: Sanlian Bookstore, 1999: 45
[2] Tang Meixiu. Blake's dualistic thinking mode and anti-traditional consciousness [J]. Journal of Changsha University of Electric Power, 2003, (5): 106.
[3] Ye Shuxian. Myth and archetypal criticism [M]. Xi 'an: Shaanxi Normal University Press, 1997: 187.
[4] Wang Shouren. A brief history of English literature [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2006: 100.
[5] Du Weiping. Poetry by Poetry: An Interpretation of English Romantic Poetry [J]. Foreign Literature, 2003, (4): 43
[6] The Works of G.E. Bentley. Wiliam Black [M]. London: Picking & Chato, 1978: 1576.
[7] Yuan Xianjun. Blake's Second Visual World [J]. Foreign literature, 1998, (1): 55,56,54.
8 Maurice cranston. Romantic movement [M]. Liphook: Blackwell Press, 1994:49.
If you look online, you can go to some reading websites or find lesson plans to see the details.