Tyger, The, is a poem by the English poet, painter, and engraver William Blake. It is the most famous verse in his works Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. Blake is considered a leading figure of the Romantic movement in English literature. The Romantics valued emotion, sensation, the beauty of nature, and the power of the imagination. Blake is also recognized, however, as a highly individual thinker whose work cannot be easily categorized.
Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience were created between 1789 and 1794, and they combine poetry with visual designs. Most of them were written in imitation of the didactic (instructional) children’s poetry that was popular in the 1700’s. But the fragile nature of the handmade books suggests that they were actually addressed to adults. “The Tyger,” from Songs of Experience, mimics a child’s wonder at the beauty but also the terror of the created universe. It asks the child’s question about the origin of things in an unforgettable way.
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 Burned the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, and what art, Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? And 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 watered 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?
By composing the poem entirely of questions, Blake avoids the self-assured, preaching tone that characterized children’s verse during his time. He suggests that there is no simple answer to the question at the core of this poem. This question is not just who created the ferocious energy of nature, but who made fierce predators a part of nature’s beauty.
Surprisingly, it is not the tiger that the speaker finds “fearful,” but his “symmetry.” Besides being a classical term for beauty, “symmetry” suggests that the tiger is a creature of design. But the later reference to “the lamb” reminds us of the tiger’s disturbing role as predator—he kills for food. The tiger is a powerful symbol for a question central to religion through the ages. That question asks how the world as it exists could be produced by a Creator both powerful and kind.
For more information on Blake, see Blake, William. See also English literature (Romantic poetry); Poetry (Romantic poetry); Romanticism.
