“They look upon his eyes,

Filled with deep surprise;

And wondering behold

A spirit armed in gold.”

The Little Girl Found, William Blake

Lions are typically understood as kings of the jungle, and Blake’s portrays them no differently.

For example the lion is portrayed as a compassionate figure in the following stanzas:

When Lyca lays down to nap in the “desert wild” (143)

“leopards, tigers, play

Round her as she lay;

While the lion old

Bowed his main of gold,

…

From his eyes of flame,

Ruby tears there came;”

(144)

Additionally, throughout his collection of poems Blake developes this regal image of lions. However, the poem is refrencing situations where lions are typically thought of as being “…a predator, [whose] mission on the earth is to kill…” (Harrigan 153).

This contraditction of what is expcted and what actually occurs is significant because it solidifies Blake’s message: despite one’s natural instinct to kill (whether it’s for food or more vindicitive purpose), they can overcome it to do good.

Moreover, this message is illustrated in Harrigan’s, “The Tiger Is Good” when John Werler discusses whether or not to kill the tiger:

“To what end would we destroy the tiger? If we followed this argument to its logical conclusion, we’d have to destroy every dangerous animal in the zoo collection” (153).

Despite “the overall question of zoo safety, the specter of lawsuits, and more recently the public anger of a number of zoo staffers…” (153) the tiger is still acknowledged as an “immense animal” (155).

Moreover:

“What is all this juice and all this joy?

A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden.—Have, get, it cloy.” (Hopkins 164).

This Stanza from Hopkins poem, Spring, offers the reader a deeper insight into the arguments regarding the tiger.