blog-maryBlog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 


Tigers (continued) – 15 August 2006
By Mary T. Hoffman

In yesterday’s Blog I wrote about China’s shameless efforts to further exploit the tiger, and about my disgust with the rampant and growing abuse of animals in the world. As I’ve said before: The only remedy to this dreadful state of affairs is the enactment of legal rights for animals, so that they can finally live the way God originally intended.

Today I am including William Blake’s poem “The Tiger.”

The Tiger
By William Blake (1757-1827)

Tiger! Tiger! 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, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

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

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?

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

See also William Blake’s poem The Lamb:
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/thelamb.html

Go on to: Manipulation – 16 August 2006
Return to: Tigers – 14 August 2006
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