Another great way to engage your students is through the creation of storyboards that examine Tone, Word Choice, Imagery, Style, and Theme. This activity is referred to with the acronym “TWIST”. In a TWIST, students demonstrate an understanding of the way poetic devices work together to convey the poem’s message(s). For this TWIST, students should use the full text of “The Tyger.” To add complexity to the assignment, you can also have students compare “The Tyger” to Blake’s poem, “The Lamb.” The sample storyboard illustrates this comparison.
| "The Tyger" | "The Lamb" | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| T | TONE |
Awed and fearful: The speaker finds the tiger and its creator terrifying, but he is also impressed by their power | Cheerful and comforting: The speaker describes the lamb's idyllic life and is confident that God is caring for the lamb |
| W | WORD CHOICE |
fearful, fire, dare, twist, dread, terrors, spears, tears | lamb, delight, softest, bright, tender, rejoice, meek, mild, child, bless |
| I | IMAGERY |
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night..." | "Little Lamb...bid thee feed / By the stream and o'er the mead..." |
| S | STYLE |
The poem is a series of repeated questions posed in six regular stanzas. The questions intensify the emotion of the poem, but remain unanswered at the end of the poem. | The poem contains two stanzas with simple language and short syllables. The first stanza asks a question and the second stanza answers it. |
| T | THEME |
The inability to answer the speaker's question leads to a theme about humanity's inability to understand the origins of evil in our world. | The poem's comforting words send a message that God loves and cares for all his creatures. |
(These instructions are completely customizable. After clicking "Copy Activity", update the instructions on the Edit Tab of the assignment.)
Student Instructions
Perform a TWIST comparison analysis between “The Tyger” and “The Lamb”. Remember that TWIST stands for Tone, Word Choice, Imagery, Style, Theme.