The Tyger of the tunes. 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 Tyger to see one, the hand that created "The Lamb", one must also see the other, the hand that created "The Tyger”: "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" The "Songs of Experience" were written as a contrary to the "Songs of Innocence" – a central tenet in Blake's philosophy, and central theme in his work. The struggle of humanity is based on the concept of the contrary nature of things, Blake believed, and thus, to achieve truth one must see the contraries in innocence and experience. Experience is not the face of evil but rather another facet of that