2022, animals, Art, Family, Uncategorized

Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright

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When we were working on Nonny’s library loan issue, YA discovered a shelf of jigsaw puzzles right next to the desk.  The St. Louis Library system loans out puzzles!  (I immediately chatted w/ someone at the Hennepin County Library to see if puzzles are in our system – sadly no.)  I love the idea of borrowing puzzles from the library.  I only like to do puzzles once so not only do I have to find another home for a finished puzzle, the cost starts to mount up.  YA and I could easily do a puzzle a week (except for the occasional killer puzzle like the polar bear last year). 

We looked through the puzzles and chose a tiger in repose in a jungle setting with lots of tropical flowers and a waterfall – and it was a glitter puzzle!  Since it was a rainy afternoon, YA and Nonny and I dived right in when we got back to the condo.

I learned puzzle-doing at Nonny’s knee so we do puzzles the same: edge pieces first and then tackling the inner part.  YA doesn’t care about getting the edges done first, so she just digs right in.  I tend to look for shapes that fit; YA looks for color/design.  Nonny and I worked on the border while YA started with the tropical flowers.

YA is intense when she is doing a puzzle.  She does NOT like to stop; we did the glitter tiger in 4 hours.  Nonny sat back and watched for awhile and when we got toward the end, I gave her one of the pieces so she could finish the puzzle.  She resisted at first, but then gave in.  A very satisfying afternoon.

Two of the friends that I usually swap puzzles with have moved so I think I need to start a new puzzle-sharing co-op or something!

Do you have a favorite tiger song or poem?

42 thoughts on “Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright”

  1. Aside from the William Blake poem, I can’t think of any other tiger songs or poems, let alone name a favorite. Years ago though, on the recommendation of a friend, I read a couple of books by Jim Corbett, The Maneaters of Kumaon and The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag. They were quite good but similar enough to each other (to my sensibility) that I didn’t feel the need to read any more of his books.

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  2. Don’t like much like rock music, but I could build a collection of rock music with guitar and drum riffs in them that have a fundamental appeal to me.

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    1. Here’s another take on Tiger Rag, this one by the Norwegian pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen:

      Jazz was wildly popular all over Europe, especially in Scandinavia, already during l950s.

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  5. We studied “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich in college:

    Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,
    Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
    They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
    They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

    Aunt Jennifer’s finger fluttering through her wool
    Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
    The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band
    Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.

    When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
    Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
    The tigers in the panel that she made
    Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

    And for something completely different, William Auld’s Esperanto translation of William Blake’s “The Tyger”:

    Tigro, tigro, brile brula
    En arbaro nokt-obskura,
    Forĝis kia man’ eterna
    Vin je simetri’ konsterna?

    En kia fundo aŭ ĉielo
    Ardis via okulhelo?
    Kia lin flugil’ subtenis?
    Kia man’ la fajron prenis?

    Per kiaj ŝultro kaj kompreno.
    Por vi tordiĝis kortendeno?
    Kaj kiam pulsis batoj koraj,
    Kiaj pied’ kaj mano gloraj?

    Kia martelo? Ĉeno kia?
    Kia forn’ por cerbo via?
    Riskis kia fort’ kolosa
    Spiti al terur’ ambosa?

    Kiam steloj sin malarmis
    Kaj sur la ĉielon larmis,
    Ĉu la verko al li karis?
    Ĉu vin Ŝafid-farinto faris?

    Tigro, tigro, brile brula
    En arbaro nokt-obskura,
    Forĝus kia man’ eterna
    Vin je simetri’ konsterna?

    In case you wonder what that sounds like, J is pronounced like Y in yes, ĝ like gem, g like goat, ĉ is CH, ŝ is SH, aŭ is “ow”, vowels are as in Italian, Rs are rolled. Every sound has its own letter, and there are no silent letters. Emphasis is always on the penultimate syllable, ar-BAR-o, mal-ARM-is. Apostrophes, btw, are just where a grammatical ending, usually a noun-ending O, have been dropped for the sake of meter.

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  6. There was a young lady of Niger
    Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
    They returned from the ride
    With the lady inside,
    And the smile on the face of the tiger.

    Of course, the proper pronunciation of Niger wouldn’t work here…

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  7. (In the olden days, I would have “Liked” all of the above.)
    Sounds like a nice day, VS.

    Puzzles Are Us, and we now have a few people we do trades with, or least borrow from. Have done a couple dozen since we started last summer, and at this point the challenge is finding unique ones, something not almost identical to one we’ve done. I sort by color, Husband arranges, once we get down to few enough pieces, in rows according to shape – how many knobs or “dents”.

    I’ve photographed them, VS – could send you the ones that are still ours, and maybe we could work out trades, meet in Red Wing or something. Or have a new kind of baboon party – the great puzzle exchange… here in Winona. : )

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  18. And then there’s Tiger Woods, Tiger Lily (Peter Pan), Tiger King (well, someone has to mention it), Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Flying Tigers (John Wayne movie), A Tiger Walks (movie), What’s Up Tiger Lily (movie)……

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  21. Hi- you all have covered the only tiger things I can think of. And some I hadn’t.

    A neighbor today reported seeing two bear cubs in his pond today. About half mile From us.
    Some of the neighbors say they have seen bears and assumed they are just passing through. I think it would be really cool to see one, not sure we need another predator in the area. I bet the dogs would sure have a conniption if they saw a bear.

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