The Tyger
William Blake, Songs of Experience (1794)
Blake's best-known poem, questioning the maker of the fearsome tiger.
Download the handwriting worksheet (PDF)Printable, ruled for handwriting: copy it by hand, then type it here.
About this text
Blake wrote "The Tyger" for Songs of Experience (1794), the companion volume to Songs of Innocence, and it's built almost entirely out of questions — the poem asks who made the tiger but never answers. The "fearful symmetry" Blake describes has as much to do with the tiger's danger as its beauty, and the poem is often read alongside "The Lamb" as two ways of asking the same question about a creator.
Nearly every line ends with a question mark, but the questions escalate from where the fire in the tiger's eyes came from to what tool or furnace could possibly have forged it — moving from a natural image to a blacksmith's workshop partway through. Copying the poem's shift from stars and skies to hammers and anvils is a clear way to see how the imagery changes register without ever breaking its question-and-question rhythm.
What to watch for
- 1 semicolon: a semicolon joins two complete thoughts that belong together, a pause longer than a comma but shorter than a period.
- 2 colons: a colon points ahead to what explains or completes the first half of the sentence.
- 14 exclamation and question marks: ask the child how the sentence should sound when read aloud, and why the writer chose that mark.
- 1 apostrophe: sort each one into possession (the shepherd's staff) or a missing letter (don't = do not).
- Capital letters in the middle of a sentence: Tyger, Lamb. Ask why each one is capitalized before typing it.
- Old-fashioned words: thy, thine, art, thee. These are easy to "correct" by accident into modern spelling, so copy them exactly as written.
- Longest word: "immortal" (8 letters). Try spelling it aloud once before reaching it.
- 24 lines averaging about 6 words each. A comfortable line length for a single sitting.
Full text (reference)
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?