Tiny tyrtle, taking fright
At a hiker’s monstrous height,
What indulgent hand or eye
Could frame thy cheerful symmetry?
In what sentimental skies
Didst thou gain thy darling size?
Who dared toss thy dear self in
Among the vales of death and sin?
What fine fingers, & what art
Could craft thy lilliputian heart?
And when thy heart began to beat
Who dared nod and tap his feet?
What self-respecting god would claim
Thy cuteness for his holy name?
Or scatter on the thorny path
Such an antidote to wrath?
When the fallen angels screamed,
Injustice! at the lost redeemed,
Did he smile thy shape to see?
Did he who made the Shark make thee?
Tiny tyrtle, taking fright
At a hiker’s monstrous height,
What indulgent hand or eye
Dared frame thy cheerful symmetry?
(Photos and words by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, with all due credit to William Blake’s “The Tyger.”)
