Songs of Experience: The Tyger

Songs of Experience: The Tyger by William Blake is a seminal plate created between 1794 and 1825, forming a crucial component of his illuminated book, Songs of Experience. This powerful visual interpretation of his renowned poetry was produced using the complex technique of relief etching, printed in an evocative orange-brown ink. Blake then meticulously finished the work, adding vivid details through hand-coloring with watercolor and touches of reflective shell gold. The work’s dual nature, seamlessly integrating text and image, makes this piece a unique and highly influential hybrid in the history of English book production.

The image illustrates Blake’s famous query on creation and morality: "Did he who made the Lamb make thee?" The central subject, a highly stylized tiger, dominates the composition, representing the sublime terror and raw power inherent in nature. This print exemplifies Blake’s radical approach to integrating philosophy and art during the Romantic period, where the visual form enhances the profound questions posed by his verse about innocence and experience. His illuminated works, which he printed and colored himself, challenged traditional publishing norms of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Classified as a print, this particular impression demonstrates the variability characteristic of Blake’s printing methods across different editions. As an illuminated book page, the piece is a highly valuable historical artifact, central to understanding both the artist’s unique creative process and the cultural context of his poetry. This impressive plate currently resides in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Given its age and cultural significance, visual elements of the work are frequently studied, and high-quality prints derived from the original plates are widely referenced in public domain educational resources.