In William Blake's "The Tyger," how has the poet described the tyger?

's poem was
an early work from the British Romantic era. Blake included the poem, along with some original
illustrations (he was an artist, too), in a poetry collection called Songs of
Innocence.

As a Romantic poet, Blake often writes about mystery
and the supernatural. His description of the Tyger reflects this. The first stanza of the poem
reads:

Tyger, Tyger burning bright

In
the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye,

Could
frame thy fearful symmetry?

After reading these brief but
powerful lines, we already know a lot about this Tyger. He is no ordinary tiger, as the
burning bright reference reveals. What kind of tiger would burn brightly? Later in the poem we
will find out that this Tyger's eyes were made by an immortal creator from fire.

The term symmetry refers to the Tyger's physical or spiritual being, depending on how
we think of it. Is the Tyger physically real? Or is he an immortal being of some kind, such as
the angel that eventually became Satan? Either way, we know he is scary and formidable, because
he is described as fearful, even in the presence of an immortal hand or eye.

Later in the poem Blake will make a reference to the rebellious angels' revolt in
heaven. The implication is that this Tyger was one of them, and probably the leader,
Lucifer.