The Tyger

You would be familiar with the first stanza of William Blake's The Tyger - I see it at epigraphs of books (such as Margaux Fragoso's memoir of her childhood sexual abuse Tiger, Tiger) and I see it quoted here and there in books and articles. 

I've never really understood that few lines until I got down to reading the whole poem and with alot of help from SparkNotes (the best guide for lazy Lit students). Read here! 

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forest 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 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?