Tyger Prosody - 849 Words

The poem is comprised of six quatrains in rhymed couplets in an AABB pattern which have perfect rhyme with the exception of two couplets that occur in the first and last quatrain which are imperfect rhyme. The unmatched couplets are identical to one another, since the second quatrain is only a repetition of the first with the exception of one word. The unmatched rhyme occurs between the words ‘eye’ and ‘symmetry’ which, though they end in an e sound, do not rhyme perfectly as the other couplets in the poem. All other couplets consist of perfect rhymes such as bright/night (1-2), and aspire/fire (6-8). Each of the rhymed couplets, whether they are perfect or imperfect, are masculine rhymes because they rhyme on a stressed rather than†¦show more content†¦However, soft consonant sounds such as w and s, like â€Å"What, symmetry, skies, wings, sinews, why, spears, and stars† show a more gentle attitude of the author. There are several instanc es of consonance throughout the poem with such words as burning/bright (1, 21), frame/fearful (4, 24), distance/deeps (5), stars/spears (17) which occur on the first line of each quatrain. This repetition and consonance unifies the sound structure of the poem for the reader, making the lines easy to read, yet they complicate the meaning of the poem subtly, especially the imperfectly rhymed lines that change in the last quatrain: that slight off rhyme and then the word change in the last line of the poem creates an unsettling feeling for the reader. He also uses assonance, which is the repetition of identical vowel sounds, in lines ten and eleven when he says twist the sinews, and began to beat. This emphasizes the good nature of god. By using poetic devices he further develops the questions about the natures of God. Another example of assonance is the fire of thine eyes. In this line, the i in fire and thine and the first e in eyes create the assonance. The significance of this device is that it adds to the rhythmic pattern and creates imagery. The use of the first stanza as a refrain repeating it with the difference of one word (dare) at the end is also for special