# "Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright" - but how do you make it rhyme? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 21, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376 "2015-10-21T18:22:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/1 "2015-10-21T18:22:39Z")
The first verse of [Blake’s poem](http://www.bartleby.com/101/489.html): > [@Blake](#): > > TIGER, tiger, burning bright > In the forests of the night, > What immortal hand or eye > Could frame thy fearful symmetry? How did “eye” rhyme with “symmetry”? Were either of them pronounced differently back then, or is this just an “eh, close enough, it’s poetry” thing? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/2 "2015-10-21T18:24:24Z")
I seem to remember reading somewhere that Blake, in particular, did the “eh, close enough” thing fairly often. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/3 "2015-10-21T18:26:33Z")
It’s poetic. But say “Sym-et-try” . Close enuf. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/4 "2015-10-21T18:33:27Z")
“Very nice, Mr. Ears.” ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/5 "2015-10-21T18:41:36Z")
Come live with me and be my love And I’ll buy you a baseball glove. ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/6 "2015-10-21T19:52:41Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > Come live with me and be my love > And I’ll buy you a baseball glove. Or this, whose euphony is unsurpassed: > **[The Tay Bridge Disaster](http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/gems/the-tay-bridge-disaster)** > > Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay! Alas! I am very sorry to say That ninety lives have been taken away On the last Sabbath day of 1879, Which will be remember’d for a very lon… ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/7 "2015-10-21T20:00:24Z")
Recite it in a really thick Celtic brogue. That gives you a pretext for mangling both “eye” and “symmetry” until they sorta kinda rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/8 "2015-10-21T20:16:23Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Recite it in a really thick Celtic brogue. That gives you a pretext for mangling both “eye” and “symmetry” until they sorta kinda rhyme. It helps if you’re a pirate. I happen to be one. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/9 "2015-10-21T20:30:33Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > How did “eye” rhyme with “symmetry”? I believe that method is called, “Poetic license”. The guy saw angels in trees that others thought were turkeys, and wrote the poem _Jerusalem_. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/10 "2015-10-21T21:11:03Z")
I thought it was “Tyger, Tyger”? The long "y’ in Tyger is actually significant, I thynk, because it helps set up the suspension of disbelief as to the pronunciation of “symmetry.” ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/11 "2015-10-21T21:17:57Z")
Still better rhyming than any Train song. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/12 "2015-10-21T21:45:36Z")
Poems have to rhyme? Someone tell modern “poets”. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/13 "2015-10-21T21:50:29Z")
To my ears, the near rhyme sounds better than the perfect rhyme, so that’s how I pronounce it. As to how it was pronounced by Blake, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/14 "2015-10-21T21:55:47Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > The first verse of [Blake’s poem](http://www.bartleby.com/101/489.html): > > How did “eye” rhyme with “symmetry”? > > Were either of them pronounced differently back then, or is this just an “eh, close enough, it’s poetry” thing? Q: do you need it to rhyme? _sharpens butcher knife_ TIGER, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night, Black is Grey and Yellow White But we decide which is right (Or become dinner fusion…) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/15 "2015-10-21T22:10:53Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Black is Grey and Yellow White > But we decide which is right > (Or become dinner fusion…) You compare the Moody Blues to William Blake? Come, Sir, as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/16 "2015-10-21T22:19:02Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Poems have to rhyme? Someone tell modern “poets”. No, but pomes do, which are written by rhymers. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/17 "2015-10-22T01:39:39Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > No, but pomes do, which are written by rhymers. Blake was very, very good. His poem _Jerusalem_ is a Church of England Hymn. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/18 "2015-10-22T01:48:45Z")
^ Oh, dear, now I have to get into the fish tank and sing! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/19 "2015-10-22T02:08:21Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > ^ Oh, dear, now I have to get into the fish tank and sing! I fail to understand why you should sing in an aquarium. ^:dubious:^ ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376/20 "2015-10-22T03:02:22Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > No, but pomes do, which are written by rhymers. Never trust a Rhymer. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tiger-tiger-burning-bright-but-how-do-you-make-it-rhyme/735376.md?page=2)