The Nation's favourite poems BBC : 18 The Tyger

The poem "The Tiger" by William Blake asks questions about the creation of the tiger and its fearful beauty. It wonders who could have made such a creature and what tools were used. The poem also compares the tiger to the lamb, questioning if the same creator made both. The Tiger by William Blake Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant depths or skies Doth 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, Tiger, tiger, burning bright In the forests of the night What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?