Like all good entrepeneurs, William Blake published a sequel a few years later. He called it "Songs of Experience." It contains poems in counterpoint to his earlier work.
One of them is called The Tyger.
One of them is called The Tyger.
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?
Gone here are gentle pastoral images of livestock. In their place is an animal of the jungle, a predator whose name appears misspelled to emphasize his truly terrible demeanor.
Where is the lamb? Well, we don't know anymore. It's gone...and I have to wonder if our new feline friend has something to do with that.
Just as a tiger is so much more awe-inspiring than a meek little lamb, some reject innocence outright, preferring instead the seemingly more powerful, steady, and rational guiding hand of experience.
Where is the lamb? Well, we don't know anymore. It's gone...and I have to wonder if our new feline friend has something to do with that.
Just as a tiger is so much more awe-inspiring than a meek little lamb, some reject innocence outright, preferring instead the seemingly more powerful, steady, and rational guiding hand of experience.
But I have to wonder at what.
After all, is the pursuit of experience really worth trading all that' s left of the innocent in our souls?
It's a good question. What I do know is tigers do come sometimes--there's no avoiding it. But that doesn't mean we always have to welcome them.
Though tigers may be majestic creatures and their counterparts in our own lives can lead us to new and unfound territories, following them may mean trudging deep into the dark forests of our own nights. And that can be a damaging thing.
Though tigers may be majestic creatures and their counterparts in our own lives can lead us to new and unfound territories, following them may mean trudging deep into the dark forests of our own nights. And that can be a damaging thing.
For despite our best intentions, leaving innocence behind can lead us lead us into some fearful places.
And a lot of times, gaining experience by that route isn't even close to being worth it.
4 comments:
Interesting. Are you a Gnostic?
Hey that dude misspelled TIGER...
what a dope...
Sprocket, you almost sound a Hegelian. I'm interested. You seem to think that there is no disconnect between the mind and the soul, which leads meto believe that you're not a gnostic. And although you seem to say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I think you depart from that at the stronger, and say that whatever doesn't kill you makes you bigger, i.e., you absorb it. Is History to you simply a self-realization, an awakening of Humanity, so to speak? Have you ever read post-script to philosophical fragments, and if so, what say you?
"the SOUL canot be intellectualized..."
Aha.
Bingo.
We can all talk and talk and study and think and argue ad infinitum. But handing it all, the Good and the Bad, over to God . . . therein lies Innocence.
Wisdom is worthy of pursuit.
To remain pure to the point of knowing nothing of the Life On Earth that God gave us . . . it's a waste of the brain He put in your head.
The goal is not to remain Innocent as in "ignorant."
The goal is to understand as well as we can and still hold onto the Innocence that is the knowledge that, no matter what, God is in the driver's seat.
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