the poem to see what it is about. Notice the old English spelling which should tell you something about the time in which the poem was written.
During reading:
Listen and follow in your book while your teacher reads the poem to you.
The Tyger
by William Blake
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? (4.)
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? (8.)
And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? And what dread feet? (12.)
What the Hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? (16.)
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee? (20.)
Tyger, Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry (24.)
[Public domain]
Post-reading:
Questions
1. What is the poet’s attitude towards the tiger? Motivate your answer.
2. Do you think this is a religious poem? Motivate your answer.
3. Who is the poem addressing?
4. What is the effect of all the question marks in the poem?
5. What or who is the creator of the tiger being compared to?
6. Write out the rhyme scheme of the poem, using a b c d, etc.
7.Answer the questions about the juxtaposition of images:
juxtaposition: placing of unlike things together
a. Why do you think the poet chooses to contrast the tiger with a lamb?
b. What do each of them symbolise?
8. Quote an example of personification in the poem. Explain its effect.
9. Quote an example of alliteration in the poem. Explain its effect.
10. The first and last verses are the same except for one word. Which word has changed and why do you think the poet changed this word?
With your partner, take turns reading the poem aloud, each taking a verse at a time.
Today, tigers are an endangered species. With this in mind discuss with your partner whether it is acceptable to keep tigers in a zoo. Before you start, jot down a few ideas so that you can contribute to the discussion. Your teacher will ask for feedback from several of you when he or she goes over the answers to the questions above.
Novel
When you read a novel it is important to be able to picture the setting. An author spends effort creating it, describing where the action takes place. The setting for The Great Gatsby is Long Island, New York, off the east coast of America. The narrator refers to East Egg and West Egg. The characters drive to New York. Here is a map to help you visualise this area (as pre-reading activity).
Activity 2.10 - The setting of a novel (individual and pair)
Pre-reading:
Nick Carraway, the narrator in The Great Gatsby, tells the reader about the people and setting of the novel in Chapter 1. Read the extract below, taking this into consideration (during reading).
Extract from Chapter 1
I lived at West Egg, the – well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them. My house was at the very tip of the egg, only fifty yards from the Sound, and squeezed between two huge places that rented for twelve or fifteen thousand a season. The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard – it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden. It was Gatsby’s mansion. Or, rather, as I didn’t know Mr Gatsby, it was a mansion, inhabited by a gentleman of that name. My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbour’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires – all for eighty dollars a month.
Across the courtesy bay the white palaces of fashionable East Egg glittered along the water, and the history of the summer really begins on the evening I drove over there to have dinner with the Tom Buchanans. Daisy was my second cousin once removed, and I’d known Tom in college. And just after the war I spent two days with them in Chicago.
[Nick meets Jordan Baker at the Buchanans] ‘You live in West Egg’ she remarked contemptuously. ‘I know
somebody there.’
‘I don’t know a single – ’
‘You must know Gatsby.’
‘Gatsby?’ demanded Daisy. ‘What Gatsby?’
Before I could reply that he was my neighbour, dinner was announced.
[During the dinner, the Buchanans leave the table, he to answer the phone.]
‘This Mr Gatsby you spoke of is my neighbour’ – I began.
‘Don’t
