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William Blake · 1794
The Tyger
The full text of William Blake’s poem, what it means in plain words, and its best lines as pictures you can download and share.
- Poet
- William Blake
- Published
- 1794
- First line
- Tyger Tyger, burning bright
The Tyger
William Blake
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water’d heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Best lines
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Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Meaning and summary
The poem is a string of questions to a tiger, glowing like fire in the dark forest. What kind of creator could make something so beautiful and so terrifying? The speaker imagines the maker as a blacksmith with hammer, chain, furnace and anvil, forging the tiger’s heart and brain.
The key question comes near the end: did the same creator who made the gentle lamb also make the tiger? The poem asks how good and evil, gentleness and terror, can come from the same source, and leaves the question open. In the last stanza “could frame” becomes “dare frame”.
Form
Six four-line stanzas of rhyming couplets (AABB) in a strong, drum-like trochaic metre; the first stanza returns at the end with one word changed.
About the poet
William Blake (1757–1827), English poet and painter, published it in Songs of Experience (1794), as the dark partner of “The Lamb” in Songs of Innocence.
Poems
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Questions
About the poem
What is the central question of The Tyger?
Whether the same creator who made the gentle lamb could also have made the fierce tiger.
Why is it spelled “Tyger”?
It was an older spelling, and Blake kept it; it adds to the poem’s strange, ancient feel.
What changes in the last stanza?
“Could frame” becomes “dare frame”: the question moves from ability to daring.