In a poem from Songs of Experience, The Tiger, by William Blake, the topic of the experienced versus the innocent is explored. The Tiger, in the end, symbolizes the destructive forces and presence of evil in the world, as well as experience, unlike in The Lamb, which symbolizes innocence and naive hope. The Tiger (and The Lamb) reminded me of playing Ultimate Frisbee with my brother, Chris, over the last couple of summers. Chris has been playing Ultimate for many years, whereas I've only played a couple times, and so he was extrememly good and experienced, whereas I am still figuring out the ways of the sport and am inexperienced still. Also, while reading this poem, as it asks the question, "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" I thought of all the terrible, murderous, abusive people in our world, such as Robert Pickton, Adolf Hitler, Michael Vick, and many others. In the poem, William Blake wonders if it was the same person who made the gentle lamb as the one who made the horrible tiger, which makes me think, as well. How did abusive, murderous people come to be? Were they simply created by a God or higher power to be evil so that others could really appreciate the good in the world after seeing the horrors? Or was it events in the world that made them somehow lose their minds and become evil, shedding their innocence, to do wrong?
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