“ NOTE ON 'THE TYGER.'
⁠The original draft of 'The Tyger,' written upon two opposite pages (pp. 109, 108 reversed) of the MS. Book, enables us to follow every step in the composition of the poem. On the left page is found the first rough draft of stanzas 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. In stanza 3 the manuscript version throws light upon a verse which has proved a crux to many of Blake's readers and commentators. It will be seen that Blake at first intended the line—
'What dread hand and what dread feet'
merely as the beginning of a sentence running on into the next stanza. ”

“ Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
⁠Engraved on a single plate from the first draft of the poem on pp. 109, 108 (reversed) of the MS. Book. ”

“ Yeats to remark that when engraving the poem Blake 'forgot to alter the last line of the third stanza.' At a later date, in the version which there is no reason to doubt was supplied by the author to Dr. Malkin, Blake again remodelled this line into the slow and solemn form —
'What dread hand forged thy dread feet?'
where the gain in definiteness and technical accuracy is at the sacrifice of much of the fiery energy and vague suggestion of terror conveyed by the earlier text. ”