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Fearful Symmetry is a phrase from William Blake's poem "The Tyger" (Tyger, tyger, burning bright / In the forests of the night, / What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry? It has been used as the name of a number of other works:
Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake is a 1947 book by Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye whose subject is the work of English poet and visual artist William Blake.
- Northrop Frye
- 1947
Oct 4, 2016 · Animated by a sense of reverence and whimsy, Fearful Symmetry describes the majestic sweep and accomplishments of twentieth-century physics—one of the greatest chapters in the intellectual history of humankind.
A poem that explores the mystery and beauty of a tiger's fearful symmetry, or perfect proportions. Blake asks questions about the creator of the tiger and the contrast between the tiger and the lamb.
The first stanza opens the poem with a central line of questioning, stating "What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?". This direct address to the creature serves as a foundation for the poem's contemplative style as the "Tyger" cannot provide the speaker with a satisfactory answer.
Published in 1947, Fearful Symmetry was Northrop Frye's first book and the product of over a decade of intense labour. Drawing readers into the imaginative world of William Blake, Frye succeeded in making Blake's voice and vision intelligible to the wider public.
Frye conducts his ambitious study with unflagging energy, great enthusiasm, and immense erudition. Random dipping into the volume would be frightening, and passages quoted out of context might well appear cabalistic. Read straight through in sequence, however, Fearful Symmetry is a lucid if exacting book.
