tiger tiger burning bright

Ever since Halloween, Simone has adopted her fleece tiger costume as her uniform. She wears it as quickly as I can wash it, which is fine because it's a great winter outfit. She also has a tiger bath towel so she she gets plenty of time to run around and shout YAWR! at us all each day. She likes to tell us that tiger roars should make us happy and not scared.

She's even starting to identify with tigers to a degree. She squeals when she sees any pictures of tigers in books and even Tony the Tiger as we cruise down the cereal aisle. I always quote a little William Blake for her. The Tiger was a poem I liked a lot in high school and is one of the few that I remember from English Lit. It's from The Songs of Innocence and of Experience.

Tiger, tiger, 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 and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and 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?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?