"Tiger, tiger, burning bright / In the forests of the night." Blake's famous poem asks one question again and again: what kind of creator could make something so beautiful and so frightening? This free worksheet has the full poem with numbered lines, vocabulary, five discussion questions, a writing prompt and an answer key. No signup needed.
Grades 7–10 · Common Core RL.8.4, RL.8.2, RL.8.5 · US Letter PDF, with an answer key on the last page
What’s on the worksheet
"The Tyger" appeared in Blake's Songs of Experience (1794), a companion to his Songs of Innocence (1789), where "The Lamb" appears. Blake printed and hand-colored the books himself. The poem has six four-line stanzas in rhyming couplets with a strong, hammering trochaic beat. The last stanza repeats the first, but changes one word.
Vocabulary
- immortal: living forever
- frame: build or shape
- symmetry: balance, matching proportions
- aspire: rise up, reach high
- sinews: tendons, the cords that connect muscle to bone
- anvil: an iron block on which a blacksmith hammers metal
- furnace: a very hot oven for melting metal
- clasp: hold tightly
Discussion questions
- What is the main question the speaker asks in stanza 1?
- Stanzas 3 and 4 use the language of a blacksmith's workshop. List four tools or words from that world. What do they suggest about the creator?
- What question in stanza 5 connects this poem to "The Lamb"?
- Compare the first and last stanzas. Which word changes, and why might that matter?
- Does the speaker ever answer his questions? What is the effect of a poem made almost entirely of questions?
Writing prompt
Write a poem of 3–5 stanzas made only of questions, addressed to an animal or part of nature that amazes you.
The answer key is included in the PDF, on its own page for teachers.