The Tyger The Tyger "The Tyger" is a poem by the English poet William Blake published in 1794 as part of the "Songs of Experience" collection. Literary critic Alfred Kazin calls it "the most famous of his poems", and "The Cambridge Companion to William Blake" says it is "the most anthologized poem in English". It is one of Blake's most reinterpreted and arranged works. The "Songs of Experience" was published in 1794 as a follow up to Blake's 1789 "Songs of Innocence." The two books were published together under the merged title "Songs of Innocence and of Experience, showing the Two Contrary
The Tyger says to begin to wonder about the tiger, and its nature, can only lead to a daring to wonder about it. Blake achieves great power through the use of alliteration ("frame" and "fearful") combined with imagery (burning, fire, eyes), and he structures the poem to ring with incessant repetitive questioning, demanding of the creature, "Who made thee?" In the third stanza the focus moves from the tiger, the creation, to the creator – of whom Blake wonders "What dread hand? & what dread feet?". "The Tyger" is six stanzas in length, each stanza four lines long. Much of the poem