Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The narration is in third-person with the speaker as an observer in awe of the grand design in creation.
Form and Meter
The poem contains five quatrains with a regular rhyme scheme. The meter is unpredictable, as it does not follow a standard pattern.
Metaphors and Similes
The metaphor of the tiger trapped in its skin refers to the order and rule of nature that every living thing abides by. Moreover, the shadow cast by the tigress is a metaphor for the clash between faith, rationality, and emotions that govern our existence. Therefore the act of sieving alludes to filtering doubts to the essentials fostering a stronger faith.
Alliteration and Assonance
Examples of alliteration appear in the lines “Testify to order, to rule” and “And the blood beats beyond reason”.
Irony
The living creatures mentioned possess power, fierceness, and freedom in the case of birds but they still abide by the order and rule of the natural world.
Genre
Nature poetry; Eulogy
Setting
The poem is set in nature encompassing the entire universe and all its natural cycles.
Tone
Appreciative
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist of the poem is the whole of nature. The antagonist is the forces that repudiate the divinity of nature.
Major Conflict
The speaker affirms the natural order of the universe that goes beyond any rationalization henceforth possesses divinity.
Climax
The climax occurs in the fourth stanza where the forces of nature come into play that strips away the restraints of reason and doubt.
Foreshadowing
In the first stanza, the speaker states the very nature of the tiger foreshadowing the authority, aggression, and passion that it exhibits later.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The poem alludes to the religious notion of a creator by proving the natural world possesses divine order. Therefore addresses the dichotomy of faith and reason that form the selection of philosophies that govern the world. As such the speaker affirms the presence of divinity in nature that exceeds any reasoning or rationale.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
In the last stanza, the speaker personifies the moon by stating it waits for years to refer to the course of creation.
Hyperbole
The speaker uses hyperbolic assertions about the tiger that grants it the same authority as the creator of watching over.
Onomatopoeia
The term “pound” is onomatopoeic.
