Tyger Tyger, stuffed alright, Stuck in a glass cube all day and night; What childish eye, Would see the animal with such fright?
In what far away jungles. Did it make its prey crumble? On which lands did he aspire? In which paw did seized prey respire?
And what far-off lands did his beady eyes chart, Which would twist the sinews of any painter’s heart? And when his dread heart began to beat, At the sight of a prey’s raw smelling meat?
What pelt scraper? What the pain, In what jar did preserve thy brain? What animal stuffing? What hand grasped, As it was disembowelled by a pair of clasps?
When the taxidermists threw down their tools And water’d their work from stools: Did they smile after their work was seen? Did they who made the fake lamb next to Francene?
Tyger Tyger, stuffed alright, Stuck in a glass cube all day and night; What childish eye, Would see the animal with such fright?
© Thomas Gallimore Barker, 2021
(@electri_fried)
A remake of William Blake’s famous poem ‘The Tyger’ , ‘Tyger Tyger, stuffed alright’ explores how the killing and embalming of predators symbolises the hierarchical shift in nature; where the traditional predators have now become the prey of far more savage and cruel type of animal.
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