The Tyger of Wrath
A comprehensive website of 176 works online, which accompanied the exhibition
at the National Gallery of Victoria, from 28 April to 30th June, 1999
National Gallery of Victoria
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The Tyger
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 in 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 watered 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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Picture of the original illuminated manuscript of his work that he painted
himself.
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William Blake
November 28th, 1757 - August 12, 1827
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William Blake was born on November 28th, 1757 as the third of five children to
a London hosier. Because of the relatively lower middle class status of his
father's profession, Blake was raised in the same state of poverty that he
would experience throughout his entire life. As a child, he was already fond of
painting and was eventually sent to drawing school as a result. Young William
received only enough schooling to learn how to read and write while working in
his father's shop. While Blake received very little of a traditional education,
he was well versed in Greek and Latin literature, the Bible, and Milton.
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More from William Blake
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The Lamb
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Resourses on the web about William Blake
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The Tyger-- An Annotated Bibliography
"The Tyger" has also been one of the most frequently explained poems in English
literature. In fact, the width and depth of attention the poem receives
testifies to its ability to contain a multitude of plausible, if widely
divergent, interpretations.
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William Blake
(1757-1827) British writer. Blake achieved little fame in his own lifetime, but
in the 20th-Century has come to be recognized as a poetic genius.
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The Tyger of Wrath
"The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction"
(The Marriage of
Heaven and Hell, 1790-93).
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