Tyger Tyger

by William Blake

"Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

The Tyger, also known as The Tiger, is a short poem by William Blake that was originally published in 1794 within . Blake previously wrote Songs of Innocence in 1789 as a contrary to the Songs of Experience, and later published them both together in juxtaposition.

This poem has been the subject of both literary criticism and many adaptations, including various musical versions. The poem is one of the most anthologised in the English literary canon. The poem explores and questions Christian religious paradigms prevalent in late 18th century and early 19th century England, discussing God's intention and motivation for creating both the tiger and the lamb.

(1757-1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognized during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, School, 18th Century, Romanticism, Literature

14 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1789

About the author

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake's work is today considered seminal and significant in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.

Blake's prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the language". His visual artistry has led one modern critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced." Although he only once travelled any further than a day's walk outside London over the course of his life, his creative vision engendered a diverse and symbolically rich corpus, which embraced 'imagination' as "the body of God", or "Human existence itself".

Once considered mad for his idiosyncratic views, Blake is highly regarded today for his expressiveness and creativity, and the philosophical and mystical currents that underlie his work. His work has been characterized as part of the Romantic movement, or even "Pre-Romantic", for its largely having appeared in the 18th century. Reverent of the Bible but hostile to the established Church, Blake was influenced by the ideals and ambitions of the French and American revolutions, as well as by such thinkers as Emanuel Swedenborg.

Despite these known influences, the originality and singularity of Blake's work make it difficult to classify. One 19th century scholar characterised Blake as a "glorious luminary", "a man not forestalled by predecessors, nor to be classed with contemporaries, nor to be replaced by known or readily surmisable successors."

Reviews

[Eddie B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tyger By William Blake
قصيدة البَبْر (أو النمر) للشاعر وليام بليك
ترجمة أحمد الديب

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

أيها البَبْر! ألوانك خلابة!
كلهيبٍ تبرق في ليل الغابة
أيُّ يد.. أيُّ عينٍ خالدة..
قدرَت على رسم خطوطك المُوقَدَة؟!

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?

إلى أيِّ سماءٍ أو قاعٍ سحيق
ذهبَ الذي أشعَلَ في عينيكَ ذاك الحريق؟
بأيّ جناحٍ هذا الصانع طار؟
وأيُّ يدٍ قبَسَت من تلك النار؟!

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

أيُّ ذراعٍ.. أيُّ أصابع..
غزلَت أوتارَ القلب الرائع؟!
قلبك هذا.. بأول ضربة
جالَت أطرافُكَ بالرهبة

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

أيُّ سلاسل.. أيُّ مَطَارق..
وبأي أتونٍ سُبِكَ العقلُ الخارق؟
كيف لسندانٍ أن يُمسِك
بالرعب الساكن في عقلِك؟!

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?

إذ تقذِفُ النجومُ برماحِها
وتسقِي السماواتِ بدموعِها
أيراكَ صانعُكَ بعين الرِّضا؟
أأنتَ والحَمَل..
كنتُما من عَمَل..
يدٍ واحدة؟!

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

أيها البَبْر! ألوانك خلابة!
كلهيبٍ تبرق في ليل الغابة
أيُّ يد.. أيُّ عينٍ خالدة..
جرؤَت على رسم خطوطك المُوقَدَة؟!

[Callum McLaughlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blake’s poetry is the kind of thing most people think of when they hear the word ‘poetry’. By this, I mean it’s full of archaic language, strict rhyming schemes, and a lot of religious imagery. As such, it’s also the kind of poetry that sadly puts a lot of people off. This kind of work has its place, of course, but it does little to spark excitement in me as a reader. There are some nice lines, especially those that draw on nature, but there’s just not enough variation in themes or ideas to make the collection feel fresh, engaging, or relevant to the modern reader.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heard Blake at primary school, all the obvious ones such as Jerusalem, Tyger Tyger etc.

His poetry evokes vivid memories from when I was young, but that is what it should achieve, an evocation of the past.

I miss my mum and dad.

[Sarah Larasati · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Came because of Lila's reference to this in A Gathering of Shadows, left because the overt Christian imagery turns me off. Also covert racism...but this is A Classic so hey what did you expect, really.

[Evoli · Rating 2 out of 5]

This poem is full of archaic language, strict rhyming schemes, and a lot of religious imagery.
Doesn't sound too bad, does it?
However, unfortunately, I did little to spark excitement in me as a reader (despite it having plenty of depth, an exquisite language, and thought-provoking symbolism).
The literary devices and prosody are (obviously) well chosen and William Blake surely "knew wha the was doing".
I honestly can't even specifically pinpoint why/where it went "downhill" for me.
All I can say is that I was somehow annoyed (???) by the poem and disliked having to reread it for a better understanding/analysis (which pretty much never happens to me because I'm a sucker for literary analysis).

[Danae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difícil el inglés pero tiene un poema que se llama The Schoolboy que es de lo más hermoso que he leído.

[Rania Tarek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't relate so much to the poems I take in my course. But this is so special. At the beginning of reading it, it seems simple and doesn't give any implication of something that is amazing, however, it is simply is. I liked how Blake resembles the imagination with "fire" because this is the truth. Also, he draws many innocent questions about good and evil. How they both can exist beside each others. Definetly, the answer is this is the world. It is full of contradictions and this what makes it, like us. The power of imagination can create the most lovely things, nevertheless, it can create the most destructive things. How we tame it and deal with it is the ultimate purpose.

[Jara De Boer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very surprised abt how much I enjoyed this considering the amount of times the poems were about weeping mothers, crying infants and god's lambs or whatever

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poem is included in Blake’s Songs of Experience. In 1789, William Blake issued his Songs of Innocence. In 1794 he reissued it in the same manner, but with the addition of Songs of Experience to form a single book.

At simplest reading the poem is a deliberation of the fact that besides passivity and gentleness, the work includes fierce strength terrifying in its possibilities of destructiveness but also impressive and admirable, a stupendous part of creation, and seemingly a challenge to the idea of a benign Creator.

To see that the tiger’s severity and the Lamb’s gentleness are also contrasting qualities of the human mind is a very slight extension beyond the simplest literal sense.

The theme is routine, and also a fact of supreme human importance -- the focus of shared psychological divergence in individual minds and of interminable theological and philosophical discussion.

What Blake’s fine poem causes is to let us contemplate the facts in their emotional intensity and conflict and to share his complex attitude of awe, terror, admiration, near-bafflement and attempted acceptance.

The poem attests the poet’s reflective faith in cosmic forces. The images of ‘The Tiger’ which occurs also in the prophetic books are independent in their own strength and freedom and are so compelling that for most purposes they explain themselves.

The poem has a supreme human importance focusing on a sharp psychological conflict in individual minds. The mind of the speaker is forced to explore a realm where his senses cannot assist him. As the beast takes shape the tension in the mind of the speaker runs high.

The speaker throws a torrent of questions in a puffing gasp of wonder until the process is complete. The questions often break in mid—sentences.

The poet is placed in further psychological dichotomy. He has his questions but he cannot hope for any answer and cannot know, even, if his questions are relevant ones.

The Tyger is a classic poem in its use of imagery and symbolism. The images here have their special strength and freedom.

The poem opens with a vivid dramatic visual effect as the tiger almost leaps out at us from the page—

‘Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
En the forests of the night:’

But there is in the alliterative first line a creation of sound the effect of which is seen in the metallic and clanging imagery of tile hammer, tile chain, and the anvil

‘What the hammer? What the chain?
………………………………
What that anvil?

Our concentration is always drawn to the sound as well as the sight imagery in the poem.

This is the sound imagery which provides one of the contrasts between Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experiemice.

The physical, tangible and tactile quality is suggested in the final line of the first stanza: ‘Could frame thy fearful symmetry?’

The shape, from and physical movement of the beast have been caught in the phrase ‘fearful symmetry’ and the idea of physical immediacy is conveyed in the line “What the hand, dare seize the fire?”

Blake’s imagery has its shifts and changes from single dimension of either sound or sight when later in the poem a picture of the physical extensions of the Creator at work wrestling with his stupendous creation is conjured up:

‘And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart’?’

But the image in the poem gains added significance and magnitude when it moves into the arena of symbolism.

Blake’s spelling of Tyger is worth nothing ‘for it seems to emphasize the symbolic quality of the animal’. The tiger symbolism the fierce forces in the soul, which are needed to break the bonds of experience.

For some, the tiger with its ‘fearful symmetry’ stands for the pervasive evil in the world: for others, the tiger symbolizes an awful beauty in creation; and for still others the tiger is a symbol of praise for the creation of the universe.

The ‘forests of the night’ in which the tiger lurks represent ignorance, repression and superstition. To some, the forest is ‘the world of Experience, where the many sterile errors (dead trees) conceal the path and dim the light’.

The fire is a symbol of rage. To Spenser ‘wrath is afire’. Milton wrote of ‘flames’ as the sign of wrath awaked.

Blake’s association of fire with his tiger is found in the lines 1, 6, and 8.

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright (1. I)

Burnt the fire of thine eyes’! (1. 6)

What the hand dare seize the fire? (1. 8)

The stars too in the poem stand as symbols. To Gardner the stars signify the material powers.

The poem may he interpreted as a parable reflecting the opposing powers of God and Satan, of good and evil. Both Lamb and Tyger are visibly the parts of God’s creation. God created the tiger, the assailant and the lamb, the victim.

The co-existence of fierceness represented by the tiger and the gentleness represented by the lamb is a mystery -- a mystery of contrariness.

The fierce strength terrifying in its possibilities of destructiveness is seemingly an open challenge to the idea of a ‘benign Creator’.

The last but one stanza is fundamental to the allegorical effect

‘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?’

The ‘stars’ are the rebel angels and the tiger is related with Satan. God created Satan who challenged Him for supremacy. Satan’s lures and temptations were ‘shining bright and the angels joined in an act of rebellion.

Blake was familiar with the account of rebellion in the Bible.

Blake’s The Tyger may be regarded as the most unadulterated form of Blake’s trust in the cosmic forces. The authority and passion that this short poem achieves, both by its imagery and by the rhythm of every single line, is simply overpowering.

Here Blake’s personifications are bold, thoughts original and style of writing almost epic in its structure. The creator of the Tyger, who is like His creation, also follows the same process of narrowing: from being fit to seize the sublime fire which goes into the making of the Tyger’s eyes, he becomes an alienated labourer.

One way of looking at this process is to see it as a fall’ analogous to the idea of a fall from the spiritual world into nature: in this respect the poem anticipates Blake’s myth of creations fall.

But the sublime beauty of the Tyger suggests that only in partial and limited forms could anything exist, just as one could only believe anything by partial and prejudiced ‘imposition. But this dubiety is not resolved: the question whether form is expressive or limiting remains a question though a troubling one.

The God Creator’s range stretches far and near and his power is incomprehensible. He can contain within His Nature such contradictions. He can exercise His creative power in such opposing and immeasurable ways.

This is the theme of the poem, and from this thematic standpoint and by its use of metallic and clanging images to convince us of the beast’s awful beauty, the poem invites contrast with The Eagle by Lord Tennyson.

The Eagle runs thus

He clasp the crag with crooked hands
Close to the sun in lonely lands
Ringed with the azure world he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls,
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Edward Larrissy has made an exhaustive study of the poem and is of opinion that the poem is a remote comment on both the Industrial Revolution and the political revolutions which, it seemed likely, would accompany it. The Tyger represents at one and the same time ‘a natural energy’ and something defined by a harsh mechanical process. It can therefore act as a symbol for the position of the emerging industrial proletariat, a symbol which Blake attempts to define in terms of the organic’ redefined and narrowed by the mechanical.

The evolution, though it does narrow, also lends frightening power.

Blake was inclined both to approve that power as necessary to the destruction of the old society and to fear the consequences of its limited nature, as he saw it.

For, separated from love and innocence, how could it possibly build the new society he hoped for?

[Hosein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can I see another’s woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another’s grief
And not seek for kind relief?
Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrow’s share,
Can a father see his child
Weep, nor be with sorrow filld?
Can a mother sit and hear
An infant groan, an infant fear?
No, no, never can it be.
Never never can it be.
And can he who smiles on all
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small birds grief & care,
Hear the woes that infants bear
And not sit beside the nest
Pouring pity in their breast;
And not sit the cradle near
Weeping tear on infant’s tear;
And not sit both night & day,
Wiping all our tears away?
O! no never can it be.
Never never can it be.

[CrystalFox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thơ của William Blake giàu chất nhạc nên đọc thích ghê, nhiều khi có cảm tưởng như có thể hát theo luôn vậy.

[José · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

Definitivamente la poesía no es lo mío -.-'

[Jo Janssen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The entire poem revolves around this wild, mysterious creature—the tiger—and Blake uses it as a symbol for something larger: creation, power, and maybe even evil itself. The recurring questions (“What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”) give it a sense of awe, as if Blake is wrestling with the very idea of creation itself and the power behind it.

There’s a tone of reverence mixed with fear here, like Blake is standing before a force that is both magnificent and terrifying. The tiger is a symbol of nature's raw power, and Blake keeps asking who—or what—could create something so dangerous and beautiful. He contrasts this image of terrifying grandeur with the more innocent “Lamb” in the final stanzas, which raises the question: If God made the Lamb, could He also have made the Tyger? It’s a paradox that’s still debated: can the same creator who made innocence also create destruction?

[Muchomorek ☾ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I love you like the little bird
That picks up crumbs around the door."

[Riley G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read this many times. Today I wrote it out in my journal. Such an amazing picture of God’s might and creativity. This poem gives me chills every time I read it. 🥰🥶

[leynes · Rating 2 out of 5]

MEH this was a pretty average read (I'd say 2.5 stars). Poetry is still pretty hard for me to read and analyze and to form an opinion on... But I'll try my best.

I loved Blake's rhymes and the you could see a clear connection between his poems in Songs of Innocence vs Songs of Experience and how for example in The Songs of Innocence the described animals were mostly lambs and in The Songs of Experience he talked about tygers and wilder animals.

I really liked the poem A Dream

Once a dream did weave a shade
O'er my Angel-guarded bed,
That an Emmet lost its way
Where on grass methought I lay.

and The Human Abstract

Pity would be no more
If we did not make somebody Poor;
And Mercy no more could be
If all were as happy as we;

and A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

This kind of wording just really speaks to me and also the very clear message of the second and third poem. I love it when authors (poets) include social and political statements in their works but frame it in beautiful language.

But overall too many of these poems were simply lost on me. I didn't enjoy reading them, I got nothing out of them. That is not necessarily Blake's fault and more that I am a poetry newbie and if something doesn't speak to me on the first read-through I have no interest in researching it. The reason why I might have not connected with Blake so much might be that he is quite the religious man and God as a father figure and guider just didn't speak to me at all and I couldn't comprehend it.

A bunch of my favorite quote from this little collection:

Cruelty has a Human Heart
And Jealousy a Human Face,

and

My mother groand! My father wept.
Into the dangerous world I leapt

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, I'm not one who is great on poetry - I'll be the first to admit that. This was the first of Blake that I have read and I didn't care much for it. I found the style to be rather dull - a lot of rhyming; the kind of assignments one might get in a course. I like it to be a bit more free, I think.

I felt like I was missing what was so great of these, but with poetry - which has been hit and miss for me - I feel I can just say 'This one is not for me' and move on to the next.

~Little Black Classics #89~

Find this and other reviews on https://urlphantomhive.wordpress.com

[Michelle Soto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this poem for my Issues in Literature course.
Loved it! The writer reflects in awe of a Creator who could, at once, create the tenderness of a lamb and the ferocity of the tiger. Asking the quintessential question of how good and evil co-exist.

As a Christian, I personally enjoyed the depiction of a 'blacksmith' which for me, literally brought the scripture of Isaiah 54:16 to life!
A pondering read for all for sure! An excellent read for all.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vol 89 of my Penguin Little Black Classics Box Set that I've read previously (2015). For more on Blake's Songs of Innocence/Songs of Experience , go here.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Blake, Tyger Tyger (Penguin Black Classics #89)

“‘I die I die’ the Mother said” **** - How is this for a stanza?! ‘The hand of Vengeance found the bed / To which the purple tyrant fled; / The iron hand crush’d the tyrant’s head, / And became a tyrant in his stead.’

• Songs of Innocence (1789)

Introduction (to Songs of Innocence), William Blake *** - A Piper charms both child and cloud, e.g. “And I made a rural pen, / And I stained the water clear, / And I wrote my happy songs / Every child may joy to hear.”

The Shepherd *** - Delightful and idealistic. "How sweet is the Shepherds sweet lot, / From the morn to the evening he strays: / He shall follow his sheep all the day / And his tongue shall be filled with praise.", etc

The Echoing Green **** – Sweet memories of childhood, e.g. “The Sun does arise, / And make happy the skies” … “While our sports shall be seen / On the Ecchoing Green” … “And sport no more seen / On the darkening Green.”

The Lamb *** - There is a tenderness in Blake’s observations and writings, and the suggestion of the Divine, e.g. “Little Lamb, who made thee?”

The Little Black Boy **** - This is actually rather intense and I suspect it is a genuine early attempt at class equality. Beautiful in its imagery, e.g. “But I am black as if bereav’d of light.”

The Blossom *** - a splash of merriment.

The Chimney Sweeper ***** - Wow! 5 stars simply out of respect for that generation of young people who were so badly treated by a society lacking discernment and empathy. “When my mother died I was very young, / And my father sold me while yet my tongue / Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! / So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep..”

The Little Boy Lost **** - This poem (THE Little Boy Lost, from Songs of Innocence) is often mistaken for its corresponding one “(A Little Boy Lost, from Songs of Experience). The description on this Goodreads entry is wrong, the quote “Nought loves..” is from the other poem.
This poem (“THE..”) is heartfelt and opens with, “Father, father, where are you going?”

The Little Boy Found *** - A sequel to The Little Boy Lost, it opens with "The little boy lost in the lonely fen, / Led by the wandering light..."

Laughing Song *** - Delighting in nature, e.g. “Come live, and be merry, and join with me, / To sing the sweet chorus of 'Ha ha he!'”

A Cradle Song *** - As in The Shepherd, The Lamb, and The Laughing Song, there is a tenderness in Blake’s observations and writings, e.g. "Sleep, sleep, beauty bright, / Dreaming in the joys of night; / Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep / Little sorrows sit and weep.”

The Divine Image *** - Blake had an authentic love for God, humanity and all creation, e.g. “For all must love the human form, / In heathen, Turk, or Jew; / Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell / There God is dwelling too.”

Holy Thursday *** - Observing the attendees of Maundy Thursday church service in London, “.. It is eternal winter there.”

Night **** - This is an emotive and evocative poem utilising Isaiah 11:6-8. At first reading I imagine a powerful lion acting in non-conformity as a guardian angel. How about that opening stanza? “The sun descending in the West, / The evening star does shine; / The birds are silent in their nest, / And I must seek for mine…” Also, “Farewell green fields and happy groves, / Where flocks have took delight...”

Spring *** - Blake loves lambs and the gentle aspects of nature! "Merrily, merrily to welcome in the year."

Nurse’s Song *** - Blake is a complete romantic idealist! Love it! “When voices of children are heard on the green, / And laughing is heard on the hill, / My heart is at rest within my breast, / And everything else is still.”

Infant Joy *** - Blake is not as dark and melancholy as the other Romantics. There is a simple gratitude in his writings, e.g.
“'I have no name; / I am but two days old.' / What shall I call thee? / 'I happy am, / Joy is my name. / Sweet joy befall thee! … ”

A Dream **** - Blake’s tenderness is combined with lament in this beautiful poem of longing, e.g. “'I am set to light the ground, / While the beetle goes his round: / Follow now the beetle's hum / Little wanderer, hie thee home!’”

On Another's Sorrow *** - Empathy that is both human and divine are revealed in this tender poem, e.g. “Can I see another's woe, / And not be in sorrow too? / Can I see another's grief, / And not seek for kind relief?"

The Little Girl Lost *** - Lyca goes wandering, “In futurity / I prophesy / That the earth from sleep / (Grave the sentence deep)…”

The Little Girl Found *** - Part 2 of ‘The Little Girl Lost’. “All the night in woe / Lyca's parents go / Over valleys deep, / While the deserts weep.”

The Schoolboy **** - Tender with longing and joy, e.g. “I love to rise in a summer morn, / When the birds sing on every tree; / The distant huntsman winds his horn, / And the skylark sings with me: / O what sweet company!”
Is this where Maya Angelou got the concept of “How can the bird that is born for joy / Sit in a cage and sing?”?

The Voice of the Ancient Bard *** - This poem flows delightfully and almost comes across like an expanded proverb of admonition to young people contrasting wisdom and folly.
“Youth of delight, come hither,
And see the opening morn,
Image of truth new born.
Doubt is fled, & clouds of reason,
Dark disputes & artful teazing.
Folly is an endless maze,
Tangled roots perplex her ways.
How many have fallen there!
They stumble all night over bones of the dead,
And feel they know not what but care,
And wish to lead others, when they should be led.”

• Songs of Experience (1794)

Introduction (to Songs of Experience), William Blake *** - This picks up where the end of ‘Songs of Innocence’ concluded with ‘The Voice of the Ancient Bard’:
“Hear the voice of the Bard, / Who present, past, and future, sees;
Whose ears have heard / The Holy Word / That walked among the ancient trees..”

Earth's Answer *** - There is an intensity and drama to Blake’s ‘Romantic’ poetry about Nature, e.g.
“Earth raised up her head / From the darkness dread and drear, / Her light fled, / Stony, dread, / And her locks covered with grey despair.”

The Clod and the Pebble *** - Contrasting selflessness and selfishness, heaven and hell. “Love seeketh not itself to please, / Nor for itself hath any care, / But for another gives its ease, / And builds a heaven in hell's despair.”

Holy Thursday (from Experience) *** - I wish I knew more of where Blake is coming from. He clearly has a burning heart of compassion and empathy and seems to creatively mix this with a Christian narrative in his poems.
“Is this a holy thing to see / In a rich and fruitful land, - / Babes reduced to misery, / Fed with cold and usurous hand?”

The Chimney-Sweeper (from Experience) *** - The optimism (or epitaph) of justice that awaits the little children exploited in that place in that time of history. “A little black thing among the snow, / Crying! 'weep! weep!' in notes of woe! / 'Where are thy father and mother? Say!' - / 'They are both gone up to the church to pray.”

Nurse’s Song (from Experience) *** - Children playing

The Sick Rose *** - Beautiful and sad grieving poem
“O Rose, thou art sick! / The invisible worm, / That flies in the night, / In the howling storm, /
Has found out thy bed/ Of crimson joy; / And his dark secret love / Does thy life destroy.”

The Fly *** - Brevity of the life span of a fly, “Little Fly, / Thy summer's play / My thoughtless hand / Has brushed away.”

The Angel *** - From youthfulness to old age. “I dreamt a dream! What can it mean? / And that I was a maiden Queen / Guarded by an Angel mild: / Witless woe was ne'er beguiled!”

The Tyger *** - Exotic! “Tyger Tyger, burning bright, / In the forests of the night ..”

My Pretty Rose Tree *** - Jealousy! “A flower was offered to me, / Such a flower as May never bore; / But I said, 'I've a pretty rose tree,' / And I passed the sweet flower o'er.”

Ah! Sun-flower: A poem by William Blake *** - Time, snow, graves

The Garden of Love *** - Despair. “I went to the Garden of Love, / And saw what I never had seen; / A Chapel was built in the midst, / Where I used to play on the green...”

The Little Vagabond *** - Hard existence for homeless children. “Dear mother, dear mother, the Church is cold; / But the Alehouse is healthy, and pleasant, and warm...”

London **** - I am giving this a high score of 4 stars for such a short poem because it recognises and voices the pain and heartache of the real people who populate this glorious city, e.g. “I wander through each chartered street, / Near where the chartered Thames does flow, / A mark in every face I meet, / Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”

The Human Abstract **** - Another profound Blake poem on the mystery, justice, heartache, cruelty and longing of humanity and nature, e.g. “Pity would be no more / If we did not make somebody Poor, / And Mercy no more could be / If all were as happy as we.” … “The Gods of the earth and sea / Sought thro’ Nature to find this Tree / But their search was all in vain: / There grows one in the Human Brain.”

Infant Sorrow *** - Such interesting premise to begin with, Blake often reflected on the suffering and joy of being human, e.g. “My mother groaned! My father wept. / Into the dangerous world I leapt: / Helpless, naked, piping loud: / Like a fiend hid in a cloud.”

A Poison Tree **** – Wow, a stunning vivid image of “the root of bitterness” (as described in Scripture, Hebrews 12:15), which echoes with the tale of the serpent in the garden and the forbidden fruit.
There is a simplicity in the rhythm of some of Blake’s poems which actually adds to the striking impact (similar to Emily Bronte & Emily Dickinson half-a-century later)
“I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath, my wrath did end. / I was angry with my foe: / I told it not, my wrath did grow.”

A Little Boy Lost - “Nought loves another as itself, / Nor venerates another so, / Nor is it possible to thought / A greater than itself to know.”

A Little Girl Lost *** - Another poem of longing, ache, tenderness and care, e.g. “Children of the future age, / Reading this indignant page, / Know that in a former time / Love, sweet love, was thought a crime.”

To Tirzah **** - Short and punchy, Mother Earth engaged with ‘Adam & Eve’ and the sacrificial act of Jesus, .. and self.
“Whate'er is born of mortal birth / Must be consumed with the earth, / To rise from generation free: / Then what have I to do with thee?”

A Divine Image (from Experience) *** - a sense of deep regret at the dark side of humanity's actions, e.g. “Cruelty has a Human Heart, / And Jealousy a Human Face; / Terror the Human Form Divine, / And Secrecy the Human Dress...”

And --
The Mental Traveller **** - Intense imagery of emotions, love and hate, beasts and gems, seasons and landscapes.
…………………………………………………………..

[Malika Saara Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘The Tyger’ is a well-known poem by William Blake. It explores the dark and destructive side of God and his creation.The speaker directly addresses a tiger, imagining its bright flashes of color in the dark night-time forest. The speaker asks which immortal being could possibly have created the tiger's fearsome beauty.

The speaker wonders in which far-off depths or skies the tiger's fiery eyes were made. Did the tiger's creator have wings, and whose hand would be daring enough to create the tiger?

The speaker imagines the kind of effort and skill that must have gone into creating the tiger, wondering who would be strong enough to build the tiger's muscular body. Whose hands and feet were the ones that made the tiger's heart start beating?

The speaker wonders about the tools the tiger's creator must have used, imagining that the tiger's brain was created in a forge. What terrifying being would be so daring as to create the tiger?

The speaker mentions a time when the stars gave up their weapons and rained their tears on heaven. At this time, wonders the speaker, did the creator look at the tiger and smile at his accomplishment? And was the tiger made by the same creator who made the lamb?

The speaker addresses the tiger again, this time wondering not just who could create this fearsome beast—but who would dare.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

With illustrations (by Neil Waldman), created using acrylics on canvas to create a collection of pictures that are primarily shades of black and gray offset by a rectangle of color on every other page, this reprinting of William Blake's classic poem, "The Tyger" is sure to appeal to younger children.

The individual pages of the poem themselves may not create much of a stir, but the fold out pages at the back of the book depict the tiger in the darker tones, opening up to an even bigger picture showing the tiger and other background images in full color.

Overall, it's a fast read and fun to revisit the classic poem.

[Rabbia Riaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiger is a symbol of power which is also present in man.That power can be used against evil by a revolutionary man.


Has he created thou,who created lamb too.


God can create everything even the Innocent like Lamb and Corrupt like Tiger.The poem also represents the innocent and corrupt people through the images of Tiger and Lamb.

[Castles · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's not a lot I can say about this book, it didn't particularly touch me, obviously outdated and the rhymes felt a bit childish, but I'm sure I'm in no authority to judge Blake's poetry. Anyway, I really like this series of penguin's, which lets you taste a short piece of works of the most important writers in history.

[Kati · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tato sbírka mě zrovna neoslovila a obávám se, že to bylo překladem. Kupříkladu báseň, která dala této sbírce název, má v originále jedinečnou atmosféru, která se v překladu zcela vytratila.

Ze...

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

...se stalo...

Tygře, tygře, žhavě žhneš
v noci, jíž jak lesem jdeš!
Kdo vzal smrti její moc
a dal ti strašnou souměrnost?

Rýmuje se to hezky a i podstatou to odpovídá, ale atmosféra je nějak pryč. Říkám to opravdu nerada, ale tuto sbírku je skutečně lepší číst v originále.

[Rao Javed · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best poem I know

[Aryan Prasad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overhyped.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice but it should come with a traditional christian imagery bingo or something, idk

[G.G. Melies · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡Belleza contundente, total! Decir más palabras estaría de más.

[nick ✮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5