About the Poem
The Tyger: Blake is marveling at the creation of the “tyger.” He uses a structure somewhat similar to that of “
The Lamb” and asks many questions about how the “tyger” was created. Blake also mentions the Lamb in “The Tyger” to emphasize his wonder in all that God has created, especially in the image of the tiger. The “tyger” is a powerful creature to have a “fearful symmetry” but yet God also took great care in creating the lamb. In the fourth stanza lines 13-16 Blake writes “What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” In these lines Blake admires what a great hunter the “tyger” is and how powerful and deadly an encounter with him would be. In the last two stanzas Blake restates that the “tyger” is a great hunter and an animal to fear, but he is also awed by the creation of the “tyger” and the lamb. As a poet of the Romantic era Blake brings to light a reference to a higher power or specifically in this poem God, when he wrote “Did he who made the Lamb make thee? (line 20).” In this line Blake is wondering in awe if God, who made the docile and innocent Lamb, is also the creator of the ferocious “tyger.”
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The Tyger
William Blake
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame they 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?
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