One of the first steps of the process, and one that is revisited until the end, is research; reviewing available materials on the subject at hand.
Each dimension researched offers further insight and another point of view on the subject. Research includes things like history; components and construction; related works; other people’s works on the same / similar subjects and contextual references.
While my initial impressions of these towers tended to focus on the negatives, as I walked among them I noticed their engineering; the symmetry of the design and construction.
I was reminded of the fearful symmetry as these towers transmit one-half million volts and one wet days they hum and crackle. The poem raises questions of contradictions; of the dichotomy of horror and beauty. While transmission towers may be less extreme, a dichotomy exists between necessity and what one is willing to accept.
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake
Leave a Reply