"A Poison Tree" is a poem written by William Blake, a British poet, painter, and printmaker. The poem tells the story of a person who becomes angry and holds a grudge against someone else. The narrator of the poem initially tries to resolve the conflict peacefully, but eventually gives in to their anger and resentment, and nurtures those feelings until they grow into a poison tree.
The poem begins with the narrator telling the reader that they were angry with their "foe" and decided to keep their anger to themselves, rather than expressing it. This decision is described as "I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath, my wrath did end." The narrator believes that by keeping their anger inside, they will be able to let it go and move on from the conflict.
However, as time passes, the narrator's anger and resentment continue to grow, and they begin to nurture it like a plant. They describe how they "water'd it in fears, / Night and morning with my tears." By giving their anger attention and care, the narrator allows it to grow and become more powerful.
Eventually, the narrator's anger and resentment become so strong that they can no longer contain it, and they decide to confront their foe. When they do, they discover that their foe is already dead, and they are left alone with the poison tree they have cultivated. The poem ends with the lines "And I sunned it with smiles, / And with soft deceitful wiles." This suggests that the narrator's anger and resentment have become so toxic that they have corrupted the narrator's own behavior and caused them to act in deceitful ways.
In summary, "A Poison Tree" is a cautionary tale about the dangers of holding grudges and allowing anger and resentment to grow. It teaches us that it is better to confront and resolve conflicts in a healthy way, rather than allowing them to fester and become toxic.
āA Poison Treeā by William Blake
This theme of A Poison Tree is quite serious and based on the evil of envy and enmity. As mentioned above, symbolism is another feature of romanticism, as well as the poetic discourse in general. Moreover, he nurtured and watered this anger with resentments, fake smiles, and fear. This poem teaches how anger can be maxed out by goodwill to become a deadly poison. He works with a simple AABB rhyme scheme to keep his poem flowing. However, the reader is compelled to contemplate such aspects. His foe sees this apple and knows that it belongs to the speaker although; the foe does not realize that the apple is poison.
Summary and Analysis of A Poison Tree by William Blake
Major Themes in the Poem Major themes of the poem, A Poison Tree, are anger, hatred, and revenge. Here is stanza wise summary of A Poison tree for better understanding. He developed a sort of fear. As a result of their first sin, they are banished from the Garden of Eden and lose the peaceful, immortal existence they had led there. That fruit seems as if it would offer a world of good, but in the Judeo-Christian story, it actually offers a world of woe.
William Blake "A Poison Tree", Sample of Essays
The poem never reveals whether the person called the "foe" has a feeling of enmity, or ill will, toward the speaker or whether he realizes the speaker even considers him a foe. He told his friend that he was angry, and the result was that his anger went away. Blake has changed the focus of the story from the Fall of human beings to the fall of God. When poet keep anger in his mind and it keeps growing by different ways elaborated in the poem cause deadly harm to the enemy of the poet. Stealing into the garden and eating the apple, moreover, is not necessarily an act of enmity.
"Poison Tree" by William Blake: The Poem Analysis
He pretends to have friendship with his foe with a deliberate purpose to deceive and destroy him. This difference immediately makes the simple poem less simple. A feeling has been given so much weight that it has become a presence, an actual thing. In the last two lines of second stanza, Blake says that he sunned his anger with smiles and soft deceitful wiles. A Poison Tree has a popular story element in the patter of a fable. Later on, in the morning, the poet is happy when he looks at his enemy lying dead under the tree. Which is key for a poem when crossing the line between good and greatness, a narrow line, that sets every thing apart.
