Question

Why does the poet describe the tiger as burning bright?

Answer 1

In the forests of the night, These first lines set up to whom the poem is addressed: the "Tyger." ... "Burning bright" may describe the appearance of the Tyger (tigers have fiery orange fur), or it may on a deeper level describe a kind of energy or power that this Tyger has.

Answer 2

He/she presumably refers to the Tyger as “burning” because the Tyger's eyes glow in the dark, which the speaker attributes to a fire obtained by its creator in “distant deeps or skies.”