- Type: Art Audio File
- Collection: European Art
- Culture/Region: Europe
- Subject Area: Music, Visual Arts
- Grade Level: K-12, College, Adult, Families
Students who participated in Creative Writing and Art, a class offered through VMFA’s Summer Art Adventures day camp, viewed Stubbs’s Tiger before reading aloud “The Tyger,” a poem by English author William Blake.
After studying rhythm and rhyme, they wrote poems about Stubbs’s painting. The following poem is a simple acrostic poem, a form in which the first letter of each word spells out a word:
Tiger by Allison
Terrifying
India
Great Painting
Eastern part of the Globe
Roar
Look closely at Stubbs’s Tiger and say aloud your own acrostic poem about the wild cat!
From March 18-22, 2013 students from John B. Cary Elementary School with Kid Pan Alley wrote songs inspired by works of art from VMFA’s collection. “I’m a Lonely Tiger” is one of 8 songs they created. Sing along:
(Chorus)
I’m a lonely tiger
With the saddest of eyes
Listening to the wind
Whistling in my ear
Living in a strange land
I don’t understand
Why everyone is afraid of me
They stole me from my land
And took me far away
To a place called London
Held me captive in a cage
I want to go home
I want to be free
And live in my jungle
Where I can be me
(Chorus)
Now I pay attention to the sky
And dream of yesterday
It’s too quiet here
And I can’t go out and play
Where are my friends?
There’s no room to run
I’m a prisoner here
I want to lay in the sun
(Chorus)
I’m a lonely tiger
With the saddest of eyes
What would your song about Tiger sound like?
About Kid Pan Alley
Paul Reisler, Founder and Artistic Director of Kid Pan Alley
The initial inspiration for Kid Pan Alley came after a successful songwriting residency in Rappahannock County, Virginia. Since that time, Kid Pan Alley has shared the joys of songwriting with children around the country. The organization’s mission is not only to give children a hands-on opportunity to participate in the creative process, but also to help them develop a broader awareness of the world around them, including exposure to pertinent environmental, social, and political issues.