POETRY INTERPRETATION

THE TIGER
By William Blake

Tiger Tiger, burning bright, 			(Alliteration)
In the forests of the night: 				(Bad things happen at night.) (End rhyme)
What immortal hand or eye, 			(How could God create this?) 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 		(Its awsome beauty disguises its evil.)

In what distant deeps or skies, 			(Was heaven or hell to blame?) (Alliteration)
Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 			(The eyes are the windows of the soul.)
On what wings dare he aspire? 			(End rhyme)
What the hand dare seize the fire? 		(Reference to Prometheus stealing fire from Zeus?)

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

What the hammer? what the chain, 		(The artisan view of creation) (Refrain)
In what furnace was thy brain? 			(End rhyme)
What the anvil? what dread grasp, 		(Refrain)
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? 		

When the stars threw down their spears 	
And watered heaven with their tears: 		(End rhyme)
Did he smile his work to see? 			
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?	(How could God make both?) (Refrain) 

Tiger Tiger, burning bright,			(Refrain / Alliteration)
In the forests of the night: 				(End rhyme)
What immortal hand or eye, 			
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?		(Who dared to create such a thing?)