The Tyger Copywork
Blake's hammering questions to a tiger burning in the forests of the night
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About this printable
Six tight quatrains that students remember long after the pencil goes down. Blake's original spellings and ampersands are preserved exactly, so this doubles as a lesson in how written English has shifted since 1794. A reliable crowd-pleaser for animal units, Romantic poetry studies, and older beginners building stamina. 16 pages, 1/4-inch letters in manuscript print on dashed manuscript lines. Sheets included: Copywork (Step 1), First Letter Hints (Step 2), Memory Lines (Step 3), Source Text, First Letters Only, Randomized Redacting. William Blake, 1794. Public domain text.
ON THIS SHEET: Tyger Tyger, burning bright, · In the forests 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, & what art, · Could twist the sinews of thy heart? · And when thy heart began to beat, · What dread hand? & 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 water’d 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? — William Blake, 1794. LETTER SIZE: 1/4-inch. HANDWRITING: manuscript print. SHEETS: Copywork (Step 1), First Letter Hints (Step 2), Memory Lines (Step 3), Source Text, First Letters Only, Randomized Redacting.
- Category Poetry
- Price Free
- Format Printable PDF
- Usage Print unlimited copies
Inside the PDF
3 pages from the 16-page PDF, as they print.
A plan for this set
A longer text: give Steps 1, 2 and 3 about two weeks, one sheet a day.
- Days 1–4 Copywork (Step 1). Read the whole text, then copy it exactly.
- Days 5–8 First Letter Hints (Step 2). Write it again with only the first letter of each word as a prompt.
- Days 9–10 Memory Lines (Step 3). Write it from memory on lines sized to each word.
Paste any poem and print it stanza by stanza as copywork, first-letter hints and memory lines, line breaks kept. Free for 20 pages a month, no card.
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