Page 102 - DENG101_Communication Skills-I

Unit 9: Poems

9.1.4 Review Questions Notes

1. What is the theme of the poem?

2. Analyse the poem and find out the idea behind the poem.
3. What do you mean by the line- “Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold”?
4. “I pray thee, then, Write me as one who loves his fellow men”. Who was the speaker of this
line and in what context did he speak this line?

5. Why do you think Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest?

9.2 The Tiger by William Blake

Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Explanation: In the first verse, the author compares the fierceness of a tiger to a burning presence
in dark forests. He wonders what immortal power could create such a fearful beast.
In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fi re?
Explanation: Here the author compares the burning eyes of the tiger to some transplanted distant

fire that only someone with wings could reach and only with impermeable hands could seize.
The author wonders where such a powerful fire could have come from? Hell, possibly?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
Explanation: In this verse we have a metaphor giving us a vision a skillful and powerful
blacksmith creating the tiger’s beating heart awakening a powerful beast. The phrase “...twist
the sinews of thy heart” is also an allusion to a hardheartedness that a beast of prey must have
towards the creatures it kills
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
Explanation: This verse continues the allusion to a creator, who, having made the fearsome best,
must confront with the sheer terror of a tiger’s nature. Did the tiger’s creator have to retrieve the
tiger’s fearsome brain from an evil, hot place?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,

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