The poem describes a tiger burning brightly in the forest at night and poses a series of rhetorical questions wondering who or what could have created such a fearful yet symmetrical creature. It questions who framed the tiger's body, what gave it the fire in its eyes, what wings it could aspire to, and what tools or methods could shape its heart and brain. It asks if God smiled upon creating such a being after the stars wept in heaven.

1. Tiger ! Tiger !

2. burning bright,

3. In the forests of the night;

4. What immortal hand or eye

5. Could frame thy fearful symmetry ?

6. In what distant deeps or skies .

7. Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

8. On what wings dare he aspire?

9. What the hand, dare seize the fire?

10. And what shoulder, & what art,

11. Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

12. And when thy heart began to beat.

13. What dread hand? & what dread feet?

14. What the hammer? what the chain,

15. In what furnace was thy brain?

16. What the anvil? what dread grasp.

17. Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

18. When the stars threw down their spears

19. And watered heaven with their tears

20. Did he smile His work to see?

21. Did he who made the lamb make thee?

22. William Blake Tiger Tiger burning bright, In the forests of the night: What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fearful symmetry

23. Kausalya Janardanan