This poem confronts one of the problems inherent in the idea of an all-powerful creator. If God created the lamb, which epitomises innocent playfulness, did he also create the tiger? However, the poem consists of a stream of questions, none of which is ever answered.

Although William Blake's best-known tiger, the Tyger of Songs of Experience, has been viewed as a salutary force, like revolutionary energy or even Christ militant, such misrepresentations distort or even radically misinterpret Blake's beast. They ignore the visual design of the animal, its traditional symbolism, and the symbolism of its opposite, the lamb. Most important, they ignore the symbolism suggested by Blake's numerous
other tigers.