The Tyger
Tyger, tyger, burning brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eyeCould frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skiesBurnt the fire of thine eyes?On what wings dare he aspire?What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what artCould 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 graspDare 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 brightIn the forests of the night,What immortal hand or eyeDare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Words in this poem
- aspire v. t.
- To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Tyger is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of William Blake, Project Gutenberg ebook #574; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, The Tyger, in Poems of William Blake (1783–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #574, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-poems/the-tyger.html, id L02011.
Form and metre
The Tyger is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, as Wikipedia: The Tyger has it. 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AA-- brightA · nightA · eye · symmetry
- 2 AABB skiesA · eyesA · aspireB · fireB
- 3 AABB artA · heartA · beatB · feetB
- 4 AABB chainA · brainA · graspB · claspB
- 5 AABB spearsA · tearsA · seeB · theeB
- 6 AA-- brightA · nightA · eye · symmetry
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Tyger, tyger, burning bright | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| In the forests of the night, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What immortal hand or eye | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Could frame thy fearful symmetry? | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| In what distant deeps or skies | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Burnt the fire of thine eyes? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| On what wings dare he aspire? | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| What the hand dare seize the fire? | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And what shoulder and what art | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Could twist the sinews of thy heart? | 8 | ········ |
| And, when thy heart began to beat, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| What dread hand and what dread feet? | 7 | ······· |
| What the hammer? what the chain? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| In what furnace was thy brain? | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What the anvil? what dread grasp | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Dare its deadly terrors clasp? | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| When the stars threw down their spears, | 7 | ······· |
| And watered heaven with their tears, | 7 | ·/˘/··· |
| Did he smile his work to see? | 7 | ······· |
| Did he who made the lamb make thee? | 8 | ········ |
| Tyger, tyger, burning bright | 7 | /˘/˘/˘· |
| In the forests of the night, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What immortal hand or eye | 7 | ·˘/˘··· |
| Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.