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Anthology Part 3: creation, fear and conflict
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Three poems look at the frightening power of the world: a mysterious creator, an unborn child's fears and the horrors of war.
The Tyger (William Blake, 1794)
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night; / What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
The poem is made of questions about who could create something so beautiful and terrifying. "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"
The last stanza repeats the first, but "Could frame" becomes "Dare frame".
The poem is made of questions about who could create something so beautiful and terrifying. "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?"
The last stanza repeats the first, but "Could frame" becomes "Dare frame".
Prayer Before Birth (Louis MacNeice)
Written during the Second World War. An unborn child prays to be protected from the dangers and cruelty of the world and from losing its own humanity.
Each stanza begins by stating that the speaker is not yet born, and the stanzas grow longer as the fears build.
The final line is very short and stark.
Each stanza begins by stating that the speaker is not yet born, and the stanzas grow longer as the fears build.
The final line is very short and stark.
War Photographer (Carol Ann Duffy)
A war photographer develops his photographs in a darkroom back in rural England after working in war zones.
The calm of home contrasts with the suffering in his photographs. Readers of a Sunday newspaper will only briefly be moved before carrying on with their lives.
The poem has a regular structure of six-line stanzas, like rows of developing photographs. Note: this is Duffy's poem, not Satyamurti's poem of the same name in the UK GCSE anthology.
The calm of home contrasts with the suffering in his photographs. Readers of a Sunday newspaper will only briefly be moved before carrying on with their lives.
The poem has a regular structure of six-line stanzas, like rows of developing photographs. Note: this is Duffy's poem, not Satyamurti's poem of the same name in the UK GCSE anthology.
Why does Blake change "Could" to "Dare" in the last stanza of The Tyger?
- "Could" asks whether the creator had the ability.
- "Dare" asks whether the creator had the courage.
- The change makes the creation seem even more frightening and bold.
Answer: It shifts the question from ability to courage, emphasising how terrifying the tiger and its creator are.
The Tyger: questions about a creator of beauty and terror. Prayer Before Birth: an unborn child's fears, growing stanzas, wartime. War Photographer (Duffy): darkroom, contrast of home and war, public indifference.
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