Both The Lamb and the Tyger poems hold parallels with the story of Frankenstein and the creature. It’s almost funny given how short the poems are that they can hold so many similarities with the creature. That said I’m going back and forth between which poem has better similarities with the creature. My first reaction was that it was The Lamb, but that quickly changed as I read Tyger.

The Lamb is a poem that explores the little lamb who knows not it’s creator. Only to learn that his creator is a Lamb as well. Now both these points are comparable in some way to the creature and Frankenstein. Rather simplistically both the lamb and the creature initially don’t know who their creator is, only later to find out. The second part is hardly a connection to the creature from the book and more a connection with the common interpretation of the name Frankenstein. Commonly thought that Frankenstein is the creature itself and not the creator, much as the little lamb is called the same as it’s creator the Lamb. This connection is tenuous at best.

Tyger. This poem in contrast with The Lamb makes no explicit mention of not knowing who the creator is at first, only late showing that it does not know it’s creator, and that it may be the same individual as the one who created the little lamb. There are a few more lines than a simple lack of knowledge as a similarity that connect the Tyger to the creature; “…thy fearful symmetry?”, “…hand dare seize the fire?”, “…twist the sinews of thy heart?”, “Did he smile his work to see?”, and “…deadly terrors clasp!” First “…thy fearful symmetry” shows a connection between the tiger and the creature because the creature is described as having beautiful parts, that when brought together and brought to life are horrifying. “… hand, dare grasp the fire” this describes to me the relationship between Frankenstein , the hand and the creature, the fire. I make this connection through interpreting the creature as the fire, dangerous, but also the act of creating a flame of life. Playing with fire. “…twist the sinews of thy heart” illustrates what happened to the creature, humanity rejects him. “Did he smile his work to see?” illustrates Frankenstein’s rejection of his creation… he never smiled at his work, only ever rejecting it as a monster. Lastly, “…deadly terrors clasp!” can be a way to show the lethality of the creature, being very similar to Frankenstein’s description of the creature “…one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me, but I escaped…”

In conclusion for the reasons above I believe that Tyger the poem has more in common with the creature and the story of Frankenstein than The Lamb. The lamb as I see it only rally has one thing in common with the book and tiger has that as well, beyond that tyger has many more points in common with the creature to give it credence. That said it is easier for tyger to have those points because nothing was explicitly decided upon. Nearly everything mentioned is a question not a statement implying similarities not guaranteeing them.