Rhythm and rhyme

In what follows, we will give you some points to consider when you analyse the rhythm and the rhyme in the poem “The Tyger” by William Blake.

The verses in “The Tyger” rhyme in couplets, two by two:

“In what distant deeps or skies,
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?” (ll. 5-8)

The only exceptions are in lines 3-4 and 23-24, in which ‘eye’ - ‘symmetry’ do not rhyme.

The poet occasionally creates internal rhyme as well. Some examples are between “and” –“began” (l. 11) or between “he” - “see” (l. 19).

Most of the poem follows a trochaic meter; a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed ones. This type of rhythm makes the poem dynamic much like a waltz or a beating heart.

Lastly, the author also resorts to alliterations and assonance to further enhance the rhythmicity of the poem. Some examples of alliterations are:  “distant deeps” (l. 5), “what wings” (l. 7) and “frame thy fearful” (l. 24)

Two examples of assonance are “twist the sinews” (l. 10) and “the fire of thine eyes” (l. 6)....