This is the title of a poem and included in a collection illustrated by the poet called Songs of Innocence and Experience (1794). His tiger in his illustration is a very friendly looking beast but the words ring out like bells and trumpets, blasting us with the power of the tiger. It is a poem that demands to be read aloud and haunted me as I wrote The Tigers in the Tower, so much so that I named the book’s sections after images from the piece. I have a strong memory associated with it. When I was ten, my primary school teacher wrote it up on a blackboard one day (yes, with chalk!) and we all had to copy and learn it if we could. That was an old-fashioned way of teaching even then. However, the poem is still in my mind as I write this, like a spell I can chant to summon the spirit of the tiger! Have a go. Here are a few lines…Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?