Number+566

566

A Dying Tiger — moaned for Drink — I hunted all the Sand — I caught the Dripping of a Rock And bore it in my Hand —

His Mighty Balls — in death were thick — But searching — I could see A Vision on the Retina Of Water — and of me —

'Twas not my blame — who sped too slow — 'Twas not his blame — who died While I was reaching him — But 'twas — the fact that He was dead —

Once again Emily Dickinson wrote a poem about death. However, this is the first poem I have read of hers that is about an animal and not a human. Poem number 566 is about a person searching for a dying tiger. Once he reaches this tiger he soon realizes that it is dead.

The first stanza starts off with the moaning of a dying tiger while the person I looking for it in the sand. Then, the third and fourth line I had some trouble with the line that reads, “I caught the dripping of a rock and bore it in my hand.” I think this would maybe mean that the person caught the tiger’s tear in her hand.

The second stanza is all about the tiger’s eyes. When I first read the lines, “I could see a vision on the retina of water—and of me,” I thought Emily meant that the person could see himself and a reflection of water that was behind him. But once I read it over again and changed where I paused, I realized that the person looks deep into the tigers watery eyes and sees the reflection of himself.

In the last stanza Emily Dickinson says, “ ‘Twas not my blame—who sped too slow—‘Twas not his blame—who died while I was reaching him.” I think this phrase symbolizes the fact that all living things must dye and it is no ones fault. We may be too late to help, but it is not our fault, and it is not the beings fault that died. 1203476917KCa

This was problably the easiest poem to comprehend so far after numerous poems from Dickinson. I agree with what KCa said about the poem, but however there were some different views I saw from the poem. I thought the poem was about a girl who was trying to save the dying tiger by giving an ordinary item that all animals and humans need, water. I do disagree with the explanation of the first stanza. My view on this is when the tiger wanted to have a drink of water, it was the girl's responsibility to provide water for the tiger because the girl did not want to see the tiger die. So she searched for a rock (this is the part where i disagree) and she carved or cut the rock, because bore means to pierce a solid substance with a cutting instrument. Any wet rock that conatined water because there's bound to be water inside wet rocks. The second stanza means that the girl saw the vision of water in the tiger's eyes. The girl wanted to anything to help the tiger's needs in order to survive. I do agree with the thrid stanza though, we can't be blamed for our accidents. Some things are meant to happen and we can't change anything about that. That's how life goes. 1203525993

Druing her lifetime, death must have truely affected her because she seems to write so much about death. In this poem, i agree with Mbu when he said that he thought the poem was about a girl who was trying to save the tiger by giving it water. But i found that the poem is so much deeper than that. The tiger might have been someone that she knew and was symbolizing it as the tiger. In the poem, she talks about how the tiger died without enough water, and to me that seems like if the tiger was a human, she or he would have died with somethign that Emily Dickinson was not able to provide them with. It's as though she is writing this poem with the feeling of regret and guilt because she wasn't able to fulfill what someone needed her to do.1203552273ape2

To me, the poem //__A Dying Tiger__// shows Emily’s endless fight for mental survival. I think she is relating a thirsting tiger to her own experience. When Emily writes of the thirsting tiger she is competing with for a drink, I don’t think she is literally speaking. Maybe, she’s comparing a time in her life when she wanted something so bad that it was almost like competing or combating for her survival. The “tiger” she speaks of might be a person or maybe even a fear she has inside herself that hinders her from happiness. I also feel that Dickinson writes as though she’s pushing herself through all the worry and eternal desires we need to “survive”. She explains that she hunted all the sand and caught the dripping of a rock. I believe that stanza proves her enthusiasm to reach her desires. I also think this poem describes more emotional survival than physical. In my opinion, I favored the second stanza. Her ability to bring metaphors and similes to her poems amazes me. In this poem, I think Dickinson shows her drive and assertiveness, not only as a poet, but as a person. 1203608837

i read this poem for homework and had absolutly no understanding of it at all, and it kind of made me feel about as big as a penny. I feel this way because it is a poem that to me is kind of weird and it makes me feel really dumb, because i have no idea whatwas going on the whole time i was reading it. Like; Mighty Balss? dripping rocks? sped oo slow? i have no idea and the harder i try the harder i fall, even after we read it in class it was still confusing. here's what i have, i think that dickinson was comparing herself to the lion in a way because he could not do anything about his need for water and his death. Like the poem "i could not stop for death." At the same time dickinson was not the tiger because she tried to bring it water because it wanted it, but she was too slow.1203651836

this poem is about a tiger that is thirsty, but cant find water. the woman then looks for water nd brings him all she can find, but he is all ready dead. 1203887547

I thought that this poem was pretty good. The change of pace is sort of cool because she uses an animal instead of like centering her poem around a person. I know that there is a person in the poem but the main character is the dying tiger. The first four lines of the first stanza are mainly talking about a dying tiger who needs water to stay alive because he is somehow in the desert. This person sees the tiger and tries to find some water for it. The person finds water coming from a rock, like a river or something. And she put some water in her hands to bring to the tiger. The next four lines of the second stanza explain that the tiger was dying pretty quickly as a result of not having any water in the desert. The person giving the tiger the water sees their reflection in the tiger’s eyes. The last four lines of the third stanza explain that the tiger dies anyway because the person didn’t make it in time to give the tiger some water and as she was giving the tiger the water, it died. In summary, this is a sort of exciting poem, but still centered around death, about a person trying to get water to I tiger to prevent it from dying any second and then the person arrives too late with the water. The only hard words or phrases that I didn’t understand were in the last two lines of the poem when Dickinson says “While I was reaching him-- But t’was—the fact that He was dead.” I don’t really understand what she is trying to say there, but that was the only thing that I didn’t understand out of the poem. 1203888386

This poem i thought was just a little bit odd and unusual. But there is one good thing about this poem, that is that i actually understood the majority of the poem. What i really got out of it is that there is a tiger and its dying. And she is the only one there to give it water. She really goes into a good description of the tigers eyes and what they look like and how she can see the death in the tigers eyes. Its sounds like she is there with the water and the the tiger is not threating her but begging her for the water that she carries.

"I could see a vision on the retina of water and me".

Over all I say that this is one of Dickinsons better poems. 1203979749

This poem like said by fellow class mates is one of Emily’s favorite topics, death. I like how she used a tiger in this poem, it really embraces death, I think she used it not to show it was tiger dying but when you think of death a vision often comes into your head of a tiger circling a ring prancing dying, breathing heavy, taking heavy steps, and that really makes the poem then and there. I believe the rest of the poem is talking about the thirst for something of course but the link that Emily or the person or thing she is talking about is so thirstily they can practically see the thing or image it in their head and they are getting closer to it, the vision of them and their dream but in the end it disappears and there is nothing left, it kind of leaves you hanging at the end of the poem and makes you get a sense of loneliness. 1203992299

Poem 566 is a poem about one of Dickinson's life experiences, however it is symbolic not literal, and the person who died is represented with a tiger. First off, I believe that the person who Dickinson is referring to must of been of great and influential importance because I think that a tiger is a very regal animal who is powerful, almost like perhaps a father-figure. In the first stanza you get an idea of how badly the author wants to help the parched/dying tiger because she kept searching throughout a desert eventhough it is an incredibly unlikely place to find any water. The second stanza is saying how the tiger needed the authors help, and how the author could see that in its eyes. The animal needed the water and knew that the only way it was going to get in was by her. By the final stanza it is too late and the tiger had passed. I think that the last stanza has a good message behind it: Blame of death is not to be put on anyone because it is inevitable. Be mournful of the fact of the death of someone/something, but don't dwindle on whos fault or the cause. This poem by Dickinson is about death, like many others, however I think it has a different tone too it. It's not as creepy or depressing. I think it has a message that some people can relate too, especially if someone who was very dear to them had passed. 1204071491

I actually think that this is my favorite Emily Dickinson poem so far. I actually really enjoyed reading it. It is another poem she has written about death (which she actually does a lot). In the first stanza she is talking about a tiger (which can stand for a human too) who s dying. It is also talking about someone who is trying to find water to bring to them. This stanza tells me that people care about one another. I really like this message, because it tells about how people are kind to one another and help each other. The second stanza talks about how the tigers eyes are getting tired. And how the person with the water is far away, but is coming to help. This shows how the person goes really far away to get water to help, because she goes so far, this shows that the person would go out of their way to help the tiger. This also shows that the person never gives up. The last stanza is my favorite. I really like it. It says that we cant blame ourselves for someone else's pain, or death. This doesnt mean that we cant help them, it just means if they do die its not our fault. I Think a lot of people blame themselves for the death of family member or of friends. We shouldn't do this because its not our fault. I love this poem because of its message and I think this message is a good one for everyone to know. 1204082143

This poem by Emily Dickinson talks about the life of a tiger that is in great peril because it can die of dehydration. And then we see the other character which is me who looks all around for water and even in the sand but we all know that she won’t find any there. She finds a dripping rock which is probably a waterfall or something like it and then with its hands it picks it up. Many immature children would say that his mighty balls is her describing the animals testicles but in the sophomore class we all know that it is talking about its eyeballs which become thick when really thirsty. Then she is talking about the figure that she sees inside the tiger’s eye the retina which would only mean that the tiger has his eyes fixed on her. Then I don't understand what she means by saying ‘twas’ but I think that it is just a normal way of saying was in their time. In these next stanzas I think that she is talking about the way that she was to slow that maybe all the effort was worthless because as she was getting closer she realizes that the tiger is already dead. 1204162657hre

There was a dying tiger, desperate for water. The narrator sees this tiger. "I hunted all the sand." It may seem the narrator is a hunter, but instead of hunted all the sand. Sand is associated with dryness and the lack of drink, making the narrator a combatant of what the tiger doesn't need, especially making him/her the holder of the lions fate. He/she catches a dripping of rock, liquids drip, so the hunter seems to catch water with his/her hand. In death the tiger was "thick", or strong or brave. The narrator watches the tiger and the tiger notices him/her, seeing the person and the water, or the continuation of the tiger's existence, which the person holds. The narrator ran over to slowly, but that couldn't blame for the tiger's death. The tiger dies, but that couldn't be blamed for the hunter not being able to reach it. He/she tried to reach it, but the tiger died before he/she could bring him water, making him to late to save him. Or on the contrary, to late to kill the tiger. The animal that normally can help itself is dieing, and the desperate need of health.

I was constantly in between deciding if this poem was about the hunter trying to help the tiger of if he was trying to save the tiger from thirst. 1204166080

This poem was a little tricky to try to understand, but I think that it is basically about the experience of knowing that a loved one is about to die and that you can do nothing about it. Dickinson might of had to go through that experience when someone close to her died. Having someone close to you die is a horrible experience and it is very hard to get over, but you should never blame yourself when someone close to you dies because there was nothing you could do. In this poem, Dickinson is not blaming anyone for the death that occurred because she knew that whoever died had served thier time on earth and had to die. Overall, I thought that this poem was OK. This poem was a little easier to understand than some of the other poems by Dickinson that we have read.1204254396

In the first stanza of this poem, we are given introductory detail as to what it is about. I feel that this a poem telling a story about a tiger who is in the desert and is on the verge of death; and his/her only life support system is water. Then, in the second stanza, the narrator appears searching for the same thing; water. He (the speaker) finds some water and drinks it. The tiger ends up dieing, but the narrator does not take responsibility for the death of the mammal. The narrator points out the flaws and mistakes the animal made by not competing for the little liquid available in order to assure his chance at survival. What he doesn't realize is the fact that if he would have spared some of the tasteless sensation; the tiger might have had the chance and the gifted oppertunity to live another day.. 1204256309

I am starting to get the feeling that dickinsin is almost embracing death because she has wrote about death a couple times and it starting to scare me how many peoms she has wrote about death. Maybe it is just her facing up to the fact that death is a natural thing, and she has showed that she is not afraid of it. This is an inner poem because we all know she did not actually see a tiger dying it is a metaphore. It seems like she is trying to help the poor tiger out by getitng it some water but she could not get enough and the tiger passed away. This is kind of a sad story but i think she showed that it is natural for things to die and it is okay unless it is not there due time. 1204258260