This essay provides a reader-response-based analysis of "The Tyger" by William Blake. After a brief overview of reader response theory, in which reader subjects serve to give meaning to the text, the essay begins by focusing on the contradiction and division that lives within the tiger itself. Blake's “Tiger” is both a beautiful and ferocious creature. From this, the essay proceeds to examine the multiple references to symmetry made by Blake in “The Tyger” and proposes that it is an overall collection that contains many of the contradictions of the tiger. Moving forward, the essay proposes, in the context of a secondary literature that discusses the realism of Blake's depiction of the tiger, that while Blake does not represent an accurate tiger in his poetry, this is largely irrelevant as the work is not focused on the appearance of the tiger. tiger as a real animal, but rather on the tiger as a myth of nature. With all of the above in mind, the essay concludes by noting that “The Tyger” is particularly open to reader response analyzes because of its open-ended depiction of the tiger and its openness to divergent interpretations. Reader response theories propose that literary works exist in a reciprocal relationship between reader and author. The meaning that a reader extracts from a text is the simultaneous result of both the author's intent and the reader's interpretation of it (Roberts, 149). With this theory, there is an inherent subjectivity associated with the analysis of any literary work. An author can attach a specific meaning to the story, but another person can read the story and create their own interpretation that is just as meaningful as the author's original ideas. Put another way, I mean… in the middle of the paper… the simple, simple interpretation of the poem makes it a reactive target for repeated critical thinking, interpretation, and rereading. “The Tyger” is an accessible yet elusive work of art. Works Cited Baine, Mary R. and Rodney M. Baine. "Blake's Other Tigers and "The Tiger"." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 15.4 (1975): 563-78.Bloom, Harold. "Critical Analysis of the Major Poets of "The Tyger" Bloom: William Blake. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York, NY: Chelsea House, 2003. 17-19. Nurmi, Martin K. "Blake's Revisions of the Tiger." Publishing the Modern Language Association 71.4 (1956): 669-85. Price, Martin. “Martin Price on Terror and Symmetry in “The Tyger.”” (Bloom's Major Poets Ed. 38-40). Writing about literature Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall 2011.