William Blake

THE TYGER

(from Songs Of Experience)

By 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 sieze 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 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?

1794

I took a Children's Literature class in college, and I swear that we spent 6 out of 10 weeks studying William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

I have copies of both that are very close reproductions of what the books would have looked like when they were first published: tiny little picture books with the full color illustrations that weave into the poems. They weren't printed using typeset at all. The books were originally printed from color plates. The poems were meant to be one with their illustrations.