The Tyger

William Blake · 1794

Catalog grade guidance: 6–12

24 content lines · 142 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 24 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Academy of American Poets, poets.org ("This poem is in the public domain"), following Songs of Experience (1794).Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

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 sieze the fire?

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?

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?