The tyger

William Blake

William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” was published in 1794 as part of his collection “Songs of Experience”, which included the author’s own illustrations of the poems.

William Blake was born on 28 November 1757 in Soho, London, England, and he died on 12 August 1827 in Charing Cross, London, England, at the age of 69.

A poet, painter, and printmaker, Blake was largely unrecognized during his life, but is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic age. Living in London for almost his entire life, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of work that embraced the imagination as “the body of God” or “human existence itself”.

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Posted: 8 April 2023
Word length: 120
Video length: 2:13

Tyger Tyger, burning bright In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies Burnt 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 water’d heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger, burning bright In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

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