In Praise of creation analysis

 The poems title seems to be part of a statement e.g. this poem is written “in praise of
creation”, and it serves to justifies the reason as to why the poem is written and what to
expect but leaves room to cover lots of subject matter as “creation” covers everything in
the universe.
 The first stanza narrows down the subject matter as it focuses on individual aspects of
nature. “That one bird, one star” etc, this zooming in on individual creations tells us that
the poet is covering creation but only the pure part of it, the part that does not need to
justify itself but naturally asserts what it is without needing to be formal or grand about
asserting itself even with a lot of birds and stars “that one bird” does not need to assert
itself because they just do.
 The repetion of the word “one” further serves to narrow down the matter showing how
the poet is trying to celebrate individual aspects of nature separately, yet even here the
poet is still vague in her description as there are many birds many stars in the sky and
many tigers give that same intimidating flash of the eye.
 The specific use of the words “ceremony” & ”testify” give a subtle reference to man, as these
words carry legal connotations of which only man follows legal boundaries, these helps draw a
subtle parallel as man needs a “ceremony” and someone to testify for them in order to justify
and assert himself.
 The word “purely” can possibly be used to show how man is sort of artificial as he does not
show his true self but puts on a front so as to assert a type of dominant rule which he does not
naturally have.
 As such the poet is praising creation as it does not need to be artificial or need others approval.
 The first line of the first stanza ends at the comma, the significance of which is the word “order”,
the poet seems to be admiring how pure creation does not need to “testify to order” but yet it
still can maintain order.
 This is shown in the rest of the second stanza in the words “How…..at one time only, How … a
certain time, …. The moon sometimes cut thinly”, these words are the poets testament to the
natural order that does not need justification the order that is pure and honest made up of pure
and honest beings that know when to do what without needing to be told.
 The poet is marveling in awe at this and subtly mocking men at how they cannot do this and
how they need actual certification as to the passive certification found in creation.
 The third stanza starts off with “And.. of his skin” this line shows that the tiger could and is
capable of being even more wild than he is but is kept at bay by his skin, kept at bay by himself.
This is further emphasized by the line in the first stanza “one flash of the tiger’s eye” that line
gives a striking image of energy and intimidation in the eyes of the tiger. As the eyes are the
windows to the soul, the tiger can be said to have lot of wild pent up energy inside being
“trapped “by his skin.
 “Watch full over creation” has slight biblical connotations as this was the task man was given to
watch and rule over creating but now it resides with nature to rule itself and it does so without
needing the “testify to order”.
 The tiger is now at rest and waiting for the time for the “blood… drums to begin”, this line shows
that the tiger representing the pinnacle of creation knows and understands there is a time for
everything and as such he is patiently waiting for the time to release his pent up energy.
 The drums here also symbolize a primitive means of communication and how the tiger is going
to communicate to the tigress in a primitive way.
 The words “blood to pound” are striking as it is raw and unadulterated image of chaos or a thrill
which is further emphasized by the drums, as when the blood is pounding it has that same
sound and feel in the body as the drums, and creates this stinging in the ear drums(which could
be ones pounding in this case)
 “Till the tigress’ shadow casts” this is a straightforward message showing the tigress is ready and
knows it is time to mate and has come, as she stands in front of the tiger casting a shadow over
him so he only sees her. The shadow can also possibly mean that the tigress is throwing the tiger
into darkness.
 This “darkness” being the one over him in the fourth stanza, the tiger seems to have lost himself
hence he is in the darkness and all he knows and feels is “a passion, a scent”, and this time the
world is still turning.
 The repetion of turning emphasizes the word and shows a sort of cycle and how the cycle is
reaching beginning, which is the creation of life and how the tigers in that moment are
completing the cycle of life as they create a new tiger during their process of mating.
 The words “Sieves…to one sure element” shows how the tiger is feeling the world around him is
turning, he cannot see anything or hear anything but embraces the darkness the passion the
scent and everything fades from him but the one primitive instinct (which is linked to the drums
and them being primitive ) that one element (possibly lust as it is necessary in order for species
to pro-create and as such ensure continuation of the species, and is one of the basic instincts)
 The word element is also a subtle reference to purity as an element is the most pure form of any
metal, gas etc.
 “Blood beats beyond reason” has an alliteration of ‘b’ and gives the ‘b’ a plosive ‘b’ sound, the
alliteration shows a type of order and rhythm to what is happening despite it being so wild, and
the plosive ‘b’ highlights just how wild it is. The ‘b’ also brings in a beating sound as the letter ‘b’
is repeated, building up to a climax.
 The “blood beats beyond reason” also shows just how out of this world this process is with
tigers, as with humans it would be a more calm and collected thing, done for pleasure, as to the
tigers’ who do it out of pure instinct and passion at that particular “time only”, while humans do
it when they want.
 The climax is reached somewhere between the fourth and last stanza, and then it is “quiet” and
the “birds fold their wings” the wing folding is a very subtle reference to how when something is
e.g. work, people pack up (fold their papers, clothes) and leave and now the tigress leaves, it is
subtle because we are not told the tigress leaves or that the birds from the second stanza have
finished mating and dispersed.
 “The new moon” helps emphasize the cycles taking place as it was cut thinly in the second
stanza and is now full meaning quite some time has gone by and possibly that the time for
mating is over. The moon is waiting to be stared at because the nature was not paying attention
to it but was lost to the “darkness” of the passion and scent.
 The “season sinks”, the word sinks possibly being associated with phrases like ‘he sunk of to
sleep’ meaning the season is over. The specific season is not stated as it could mean the mating
season meaning it is over or the regular seasons in which case it would symbolize cycles.
 “satisfied things” meaning the animals or creatures are now satisfied and the season ends with
them satisfied there is sibilance of ‘s’ in “sinking to satisfied” present there to counter the
plosive ‘b’ from the previous stanza emphasizing and marking the change to a quite time.
 And the last line “Man with his mind ajar” is as if the poet is mocking man, saying that all these
things happened and man was just there being open minded and not doing any of that, this
being emphasized by the”–“which indicates a break in speech as if the poet was explaining such
beauty to someone and now comes down to reality to see this plain creature incapable of doing
any of what she said and can only marvel it it.
 The form of the poem also helps put across the wild but orderly manor the poet was trying to
express as the stanzas all have four lines each but the length of each sentences being nearly
erratic.