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Thursday, January 08, 2009

For Matthew

The Tyger
William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

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?

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?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what the grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

This is very famous, I know. But it's rhythm is great and... it's great.
(Matthew, it's saved as draft for some time. I wanted to put a beautiful picture, write something inspiring.
I can wait no longer.)

24 comments:

Radagast said...

Thank you. Tigers seem to have inspired people, down the years. Rudyard Kipling and more recently, Yann Martel, quite memorably, have written about them. I still like my avatar: it sublimates perfectly what tigers are, for me.

Matt

Ana said...

I'll search for Yann Martel.
I like your avatar

susan said...

I suspect in real life Matt has tiger stripes just like a real Tyger.

Poets just don't write like Blake anymore.

soulful sepulcher said...

Just stopping by to say hello to both of you

Ana said...

Susan,
I have my suspicions too.
:)

Stephany,
Thank you!
I'll just check how are you. There I go to your blog!

Love,

Ana

Laura said...

I really like this poem.

Ana said...

:)
Me too!

susan said...

Ana, isn't it a shame we cannot ask Matt's wife if he has stripes?

Ana said...

A real shame.:(
LOL

Radagast said...

LOL. I'm sure you may ask her what you like... I imagine that she'll find some way or other to demonstrate that my physical attributes render me nothing more nor less than an evil machine!

Anyway, I'm happy to think as I imagine a tiger would!

Matt

Ana said...

Evil machine?
I doubt!

susan said...

One of my most favorite songs in the world is "Welcome to the Machine" by Pink Floyd.

Can I ask the Missus if you have a tail like a Tyger, or do you play golf like another Tiger?

Ana said...

I don't know this song. :(
Thought I knew all Pink Floyd.

Radagast said...

When I played golf, I played it with all the enthusiasm that I could muster!..

I'm just watching K-PAX. There's something disturbingly convincing about Kevin Spacey's performance. I don't know if that's how modern psychiatry does things (ie, how well-researched the movie is), but if one is going to regress a patient to a deeply traumatic time and experience, I should have thought it best to attempt to resolve the issue, even under hypnosis.

Matt

Ana said...

I've just seen part of this movie and I just remember the part where a bird appeared and he had to go away.
Hypnosis would not be good for me.
I don't have a traumatic experience that can be related to my "neurosis", yep, I'm neurotic and I don't care if psychiatry has made the concept disappear.
It was more to do with dysfunctional family, crazy family to be more specific. lol
I've been exposed to double-binds - it's Laing's concept and I'm planning to write about it - and other stuffs.

Ana said...

PS:
Enthusiasm
Great word!

susan said...

Ana, it's on "Wish You were Here".

it's also on You Tube, a very nice Jaguar car is on it too......

Ana said...

I don't have this one.
My speakers are not working. I've checked the lyrics and noticed the "Jaguar".
:)

Radagast said...

What's a double-bind?

As to traumatic experience... I think the concept goes a great deal farther than most people are aware. For example, at my last place of employment, I was regularly required to carry out specific tasks, without the requisite back-up, and with necessary information denied to me, even when I asked for it specifically. I found that traumatic enough, and there is no question that it was deliberate: I saw at least one member of "management" take pleasure from the anxiety that withholding information brought. Loosely speaking, anything that one does not understand can be traumatic, I think.

Matt

Ana said...

Double-bind is when you receive two opposite messages in one statement:
someone tells you "Hug me." in words but with the body or in another way you can see that "Don't you dare to hug me." is also being said to you.
This is the simple way to explain it.
It's quite disturbing specially when you're a child and is not aware of it.
When I was 19 years old someone told me about Laing. I've bought "The Self and Others".
I didn't understand many things but I've kept this book with me and from time to time I underlined some phrases.
I went to therapy and I finally understood some of the things I had underlined.
Wow!
This is so usual!
Working places are a source of trauma.
You don't need to assure me it was deliberate. I also had this sabotage experiences.

Radagast said...

"Mixed messages," is another term, meaning more or less the same thing, I think. Funny, isn't it? Our understanding of body language, and so on, is probably quite accute, but we've become obliged to rely only on the written and spoken word and, more to the point, upon what we can prove. If one was to make an accusation, and say that whilst people were saying "appropriate" things, their behaviour pointed to an entirely different course of action, it would be denied, in that childish way that some people deny the blindingly obvious (which explains the tedious correspondence I've had with the "powers" that be. Words are such tricky things: one can lie with them, and yet we all know when we're being bullshitted, but for some people, their way of life demands that that lying routinely is entirely "normal". And then, when one is presented with somebody whose actions and words are entirely congruent (ie, they behave in a way that is entirely consistent with what just came out of their mouths), we wonder at the positive psychological effect that that has!

Speaking personally, I'm tired of being lied to, and I'm tired of people pretending that when they don't do what they said they'd do, they deny ever making the promise, or just ignore me. I dunno, it just seems so counterproductive!

Matt

Radagast said...

BTW, Yann Martel wrote Life of Pi, which was quite big a few years back, winning prizes, and whatnot.

Matt

Ana said...

Tired of being lied to...
I know the feeling. I thought it was just me.
You wrote something very good about it all and it raises many issues.
I'll work on this and try to write something because I believe it's a very important issue and lies are everywhere.

I have to search for Yann Martel.

Love,
Ana

Ana said...

Yann Martel is the author that had that controversy of being influenced by the Brazilian author Moacyr Scliar!
I remember reading something about it but I didn't pay t much attention.