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Characters · 4
The Creator
The Creator is the silent, mysterious divine figure at the center of William Blake's "The Tyger" (1794, Songs of Experience).
character
The Lamb
The Lamb shows up in William Blake's "The Tyger" not as a vivid character but as an evocative symbolic counterpoint brought up in the poem's most philosophically intense stanza.
character
The Speaker
The Speaker is the unnamed poetic voice in William Blake's "The Tyger" (1794, Songs of Experience), acting as both narrator and philosophical questioner.
character
The Tyger
The Tyger is the central, mysterious figure in William Blake's brief yet powerful poem of the same name.
character
Key quotes · 8
“When the stars threw down their spears / And water'd heaven with their tears:”
These lines come from William Blake's poem "The Tyger," featured in Songs of Experience (1794).
Unnamed lyric speaker · Stanza 5
“Did he smile his work to see? / Did he who made the Lamb make thee?”
These two rhetorical questions come just before the climax of William Blake's poem "The Tyger," which appeared in Songs of Experience (1794).
The unnamed human speaker · Songs of Experience (1794)
“Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night;”
These are the famous opening lines of "The Tyger" by William Blake, published in Songs of Experience (1794).
The unnamed speaker (Blake's lyric voice) · Songs of Experience
“In what distant deeps or skies, / Burnt the fire of thine eyes?”
These opening lines from the second stanza of William Blake's "The Tyger" (1794), found in Songs of Experience, come from an unnamed speaker who addresses the fearsome tiger directly.
Lyric Speaker (anonymous) · Stanza 2
“What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
These lines open — and nearly close — William Blake's poem "The Tyger," published in Songs of Experience (1794).
The poetic speaker / narrator · Stanza 1 (repeated in Stanza 6)
“And what shoulder, & what art, / Could twist the sinews of thy heart?”
These lines are from William Blake's poem "The Tyger," which was published in Songs of Experience in 1794.
The unnamed poetic speaker
“Tyger Tyger burning bright, / In the forests of the night: / What immortal hand or eye, / Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”
This is the opening (and closing) stanza of William Blake's poem "The Tyger," published in Songs of Experience (1794).
The lyric speaker (Blake's persona) · Stanza 1 and Stanza 6 (final stanza)
“What the hammer? what the chain, / In what furnace was thy brain?”
These lines are from William Blake's poem "The Tyger," which was published in Songs of Experience in 1794.
The unnamed lyric speaker
Symbols · 5
Fire
In William Blake's "The Tyger," fire serves as the main symbol of awe-inspiring creative energy and divine power.
The Forest of the Night
In William Blake's "The Tyger," the "forests of the night" represent the dark, mysterious world from which the fearsome tiger emerges.
The Hammer and Anvil
In William Blake's "The Tyger," the hammer and anvil evoke the awe-inspiring and fearsome power of the divine Creator.
The Stars
In William Blake's "The Tyger," the stars represent the established cosmic and divine order — a rational, obedient heavenly hierarchy that contrasts sharply with the terrifying, fiery energy of the Tyger.
The Tyger
In William Blake's poem The Tyger (from Songs of Experience, 1794), the tiger serves as a powerful symbol, embodying the awe-inspiring and terrifying aspects of creation, as well as the darker elements of existence.
Literary devices · 12
Rhetorical Question
The poem flows like a stream of unanswered questions aimed at the tiger.
Symbolism
The Tyger works on two levels: as a literal animal and as a cosmic symbol.
Imagery
Blake constructs the tiger using striking, industrial imagery instead of typical natural descriptions.
Juxtaposition
Blake directly sets 'The Tyger' against its counterpart 'The Lamb' from Songs of Innocence.
Repetition
Repetition acts as the backbone of the poem.
Alliteration
The poem begins with Blake's most famous alliterative line: 'Tyger Tyger, burning bright.'
Meter
Blake uses trochaic tetrameter — a rhythm where the stress comes first, creating a driving force that feels urgent and incantatory, quite different from the softer iambic rhythm typical of much English poetry.
Trochee
The trochaic foot — consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one — is the main unit in the poem and its most unique sound choice.
Apostrophe
The whole poem acts as an apostrophe, meaning it's a direct address to an absent or non-human entity—in this case, the tiger itself.
Allusion
Blake's imagery of the forge references the myth of Prometheus, the Titan who took fire from the gods and faced severe punishment for it.
Paradox
The poem's central paradox can be summed up in the phrase "fearful symmetry."
Volta
The poem's most striking shift happens in the fifth stanza, where the vast cosmic scale suddenly narrows to a moment of what seems like divine uncertainty: 'When the stars threw down their spears, / And watered heaven with their tears, / Did he smile his work to see?'
Vocabulary · 12
Tyger
Blake's archaic or deliberately altered spelling of 'tiger,' used to give the animal a mythic, symbolic weight beyond a mere wild cat.
noun · Chapter 1
immortal
Not subject to death; belonging to a divine or supernatural being rather than any mortal creature or human craftsman.
adjective · Chapter 1
frame
To construct, shape, or bring into being — here used for the act of a divine creator forming the tiger's body and nature.
verb · Chapter 1
fearful symmetry
A perfectly balanced, beautiful form that also inspires terror; the tiger's striped body is both orderly and dreadful at the same time.
phrase · Chapter 1
deeps
Vast, unfathomable depths — here referring to remote, unknowable regions of the cosmos, either far below or far above ordinary existence.
noun · Chapter 1
sinews
The tough fibrous cords (tendons) that connect muscle to bone; used here to suggest the raw physical power built into the tiger's body.
noun · Chapter 1
anvil
A heavy iron block on which a blacksmith hammers hot metal into shape; part of the forge imagery that pictures God as a craftsman beating the tiger into existence.
noun · Chapter 1
furnace
A powerful enclosed fire used to heat metal until it can be worked; here it represents the intense creative energy or divine fire used to forge the tiger.
noun · Chapter 1
dare
To have the boldness or audacity to do something dangerous or morally challenging; the word implies that creating such a terrifying creature required extraordinary nerve.
verb · Chapter 1
seize
To grab or take hold of something forcefully; here it means physically grasping the divine fire needed to create the tiger's burning eyes.
verb · Chapter 1
dread
Causing great fear or awe; when applied to the creator's hand or feet, it means those hands inspire terror by the power they wield.
adjective · Chapter 1
Lamb
A young sheep, but here specifically a symbol of gentleness, innocence, and Christ — drawn from Blake's companion poem — set in contrast to the fierce tiger.
noun · Chapter 1