In this poem, the poet is talking about a wild tiger captured in a cage. The tiger has very vivid stripes on the skin. The tiger is very angry and it is roaming in his small cage. Then the poet imagines the situation if it were free. It would have been hiding near some pond in the long grass of the jungle for his prey. It would have been threatening the villagers near the jungle by its roars and huge claws. Then the poet again turns to the reality and finds the tiger roaming in the cage restlessly. All his strength is locked behind the iron bars. It keeps helplessly ignoring the visitors during the day and keep staring at the sky in the night.