Tuesday, December 1

William Blake - "The Tyger" and "The Lamb" poems

I have received some visits to William Blake's post with two of his poems illustrated by him and I think that some people are searching for the poems. Since it is difficult to read them with Blake's handwriting here is The Tyger and in the post above is The Lamb:

The Tiger
by William Blake
1757-1827

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?