5) What is the effect of trochaic metre and use of spondee?
Trochaic metre involves a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, which creates a natural rise and fall during the reading of the poem, making it sound like a song. Take lines 1+2 as an example, “Tiger, tiger, burning bright / in the forests of the night,” the trochaic metre couple with the aabb rhyme scheme have a melodic effect when reading “The Tyger.”
Blake does not consistently use the trochaic metre within the poem, sometimes breaking it, like in line 19, he breaks the trochaic metre, starting the line with an unstressed syllable, creating an involuntary pause in the poem, accentuating the question that the poetic persona is posing, “Did he who make the lamb make thee?”
Blake’s use of spondee adds a somewhat negative feel to certain lines within the poem, because its interruption of the trochaic metre creates heaviness. In line 16, for example, Blake makes use of the words “deadly” and “terrors” which are both spondees. In this particular stanza, the punctuation used by Blake increases the pace at which the stanza is read creating an air of insistence. Having these two spondees juxtaposed with each other significantly slows the pace, causing the reader to linger over the line, changing the attitude from one of insistent questioning, to one of pensiveness.
6) Analyse the syntax and diction of “What dread hand? and What dread feet?
Line 12 makes effective use of the word “dread.” When used as an adjective today it describes something greatly feared, however archaically it was used as an adjective to describe something regarded with awe.
This double meaning that the word possesses is in keeping with the overall tone of Blake’s poem, where the narrative voice is both in awe of the beast while fearing it. The word highlights the idea that the being who created the Tyger must also be revered and dreaded. If Blake hade chosen to use the word “dreadful” the line would not have this double effect.
Blake could have chosen to place the adjective in the line after the noun (i.e. “What hand of dread? And what feet of dread?”) this would have required the addition of the preposition “of” in order for it to make sense, and thus would have interrupted not only the rhyme, but the rhythm of the stanza. With the adjective before the noun, the noun gains more importance, so the reader focuses on the idea of the hands and the feet of the creator, rather than the “dread” attached to them.
