When one thinks of the atrocities that were the Holocaust, the first thing that comes to mind is typically not The Tyger by William Blake. However, this poem speaks of the same sentiment felt by all those within the walls of various work camps throughout Europe: How could a loving G-d that creates such beauty also create such pain for his people?
The first four opening lines "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright/ In the forests of the night/ What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" begin this image of such beauty in the world with a fire that burns within it. There is a pain and hate masked in beauty that prowls the night and G-d made this, leaving one to ask: how could this be?
Following is "In what distant deeps or skies/ Burnt the fire in thine eyes?" These are the lines where the Jew begins to not only see deeper into the eyes but feel the fires; these fires are of hate and of the painful ways in which they are their loved ones much die. Later again, the image of the furnace is revisited as madness in which this "tyger" was forged is spoken of. This use of words only reinforces sentiment of atrocities faced, all burning within the fevered brain of this prowling beast.
The lines continue on with "When the stars threw down their spears/ And water's heaven with their tears,/ Did he smile his work to see?/ Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" In these four lines you have the full hell of Jewish thought throughout this dehumanizing period of history. When G-d sent these atrocities, these men and women, this "tyger," and G-d's chosen people cried out to Him, did He smile or even care or were the Jews truly abandoned in the endless night?
Though written well before the time of the atrocities felt by the Jewish people, the betrayal of one's higher power felt in this poem transcends time. These emotions are something as primal as the tiger and its pain will continue to burn on as we search for answers as to why we have all become lost.
-Please note that due to the author's beliefs, G-d will be spelled as such out of respect.
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