Yesterday was Zany day, today is Revolution day. I am a little bit fascinated by William Blake and recently came across this video from Guilherme Marcondes of Brazil , which I think is an interesting interpretation of Blakes ‘The Tyger’. Many think that this poem is inspired by the French Revolution. The video seems to take the same approach, by showing the Tyger prowling through the city and transforming all the decadence and sloth in its wake. Everything is turned into an animal, an insect or glowing offshoot, perhaps echoing Blakes preference for the pastoral world over the modern, industrial, machine bound world. I think this is a really imaginative mixture of puppetry, animation, lighting and music and conveys the fearsomeness and majesty of the Tyger brilliantly.

Here is some info in Blake, culled from Wikipedia:

Blake was a mystic and even claimed to have visions. The earliest instance occurred at the age of about eight in London, when he reported seeing a tree filled with angels “bespangling every bough like stars.”

In 1782 Blake met his wife Catherine Boucher. “At the time, Blake was recovering from a relationship that had
culminated in a refusal of his marriage proposal. Telling Catherine and
her parents the story, she expressed her sympathy, whereupon Blake
asked her, “Do you pity me?” To Catherine’s affirmative response he
himself responded, “Then I love you.”" This strategy never works for me for some reason:-(

On the day of his death, Blake worked relentlessly on his series of Dante illustrations. Eventually, it is reported, he ceased working and turned to his
wife, who was in tears by his bedside. Beholding her, Blake is said to
have cried, “Stay Kate! Keep just as you are – I will draw your
portrait – for you have ever been an angel to me.” Having completed
this portrait (now lost), Blake laid down his tools and began to sing
hymns and verses. At six that evening,
after promising his wife that he would be with her always, Blake died.
Gilchrist reports that a female lodger in the same house, present at
his expiration, said, “I have been at the death, not of a man, but of a
blessed angel.”

Here are the lyrics of the The Tyger:

Poem lyrics of 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?

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?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

So whats your favourite poem?

technorati tags:video, William Blake, The Tyger

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