A POISON TREE

BY WILLIAM BLAKE
A POISON
TREE
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,

Night & morning with my tears: A POISON TREE
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night.

Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole,

When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
 MEANING OF DIFFICULT WORDS

1. Wrath -strong, stern, orfierceanger;

deeplyresentfulindignation; ire.

2. Deceit distortion
ofthetruthforthepurposeofmisleading;dup
licity;
fraud; cheating

3. Wiles Trick, trap

4. Veiled conceal, lackingclarityordistinctness

PLOT OF THE STORY

THE POISON TREE

Literal Meaning-STANZA 1
The persona was angry
with his friend. He dealt
with his angry feelings
and his anger melted
away. He was angry with
his enemy and did not
sort it out with the latter
Literal Meaning-STANZA 2

The persona fed his

angry feelings with fears
and tears daily. He also
put on a friendly front to
deceive others about his
anger.
Literal Meaning-STANZA 3
The angry feeling grew so
strongly inside the persona
that it became a poison
tree. The persona compared
it to an apple tree that bore
fruit or an apple bright. The
enemy saw the fruit and knew
it belonged to the persona.
Literal Meaning-STANZA 4
The enemy entered the
personas garden quietly
at night when it was dark
to steal the apple. In the
morning, the persona saw
his enemy lying on the
ground beneath the tree.
 Figurative Meaning-STANZA 1
In life, our relationship with others are
normally based on two groups of people-

1. friends, those we can get along with

2. rivals,those who are hostile to us.

Disagreement among friends are never

long lasting because good feeling, trust
and confidence override hostility. Friends
would normally sit down and talk.
 Figurative Meaning-STANZA 2
On the other hand, when
exchange words with our rivals
or people who are hostile, we
tend to close our minds and not
try to solve the unpleasant
exchange of words. We go all out
to pretend that everything is fine
by putting on a false front.
 Figurative Meaning-STANZA 3
We allow it to fester within
ourselves with unpleasant
thoughts. We keep the anger
inside and become obsessed
until it builds up and poison our
thinking as well as our sense of
right and wrong. We let it grow
out of proportion.
 Figurative Meaning-STANZA 4

Eventually we make no effort to

hide our unpleasant feelings
even at the risk of hurting our
rivals. We might even feel happy
when misfortune befalls our
rivals
Themes Keeping
anger and its
destructive
consequence
Bad feelings
Anger, s bottled up
like anger
revenge among
and death friends and
rivals

THEMES
Human
Insincerity
nature
and deceit

The
Communicat
danger of Obsession
ion among
holding and its
friends and
back ones consequen
rivals
feeling ces
MORAL VALUES

1. We should not allow anger to control our

life
2. We should express our feelings in a
healthy way and not bottle them up
3. We should make peace with everyone,
friend and foe
4. We should know that obsession can lead to
loss of self-control and destruction
5. We should be sincere, even with our rivals
6. We should not wish ill on anyone including
people we are not comfortable with.
 Point of
Pointofview
view & language and style
First person point of view

Language and style

Indirect expression which requires some
consideration in understanding it
Tendency to use word with multiple
meanings,which are not immediately
obvious
A message cum advise to get anger out of
ones system
Tone ,Mood and atmosphere &
rhyme and rhythm
Poetic devices
Literary Devices
POETIC/LITERARY DEVICES
1. Personification
- Waters the wrath with fear
- I told my wrath, my wrath did end

2. Metaphor
-The tree is considered as a wrath/anger
-"Till it bore an apple bright", the apple is a metaphor for the "fruit" of his grudge.

3.
Alliteration
-sunned and smiles
-friend and foe
-bore and bright

4. Imagery
- Throughout the poem

5. Irony
-the foe beneath the tree of hatred

6. Repitition
-I was angry with my friend I was angry with my foe

7. Allusion
-"Garden.. apple...tree" alludes to Adam & Eve, the Garden of Eden.
STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS
Stanza 1: William Blake speaks of
someone, his friend and his foe, whom has
he is angry with. When he says I told my
wrath, my wrath did end after he said he
was angry with his friend, he is saying he
was able to get over being angry with his
friend and forgot about it. Although, it is
quite the opposite when he mentions I
told it not, and my wrath did grow. Blake
is saying that with his enemy, he allowed
himself to get angry, and therefore, his
wrath did grow.
Stanza 2: In this stanza, Blake
begins to make his anger grow
and he takes pleasure in it,
comparing his anger with
something, in this case, a tree or
plant. The speaker says he
sunned it with smiles and and
with soft, deceitful wiles. This
means he is creating an illusion
with his enemy saying he is
pretending to be friendly to
Stanza 3: And it grew both day and
night and til it bore an apple bright are
meaning that his illusion with his enemy
is growing and growing until it became a
strong and tempting thing. His illusion
has a metaphor and it is an apple. After,
his foe believes it shines, which means
he thinks its true and means something,
and takes Blake illusion seriously. And he
knew it was mine suggests that he really
thinks Blake is his friend.
Stanza 4: Being the last stanza, Blake
needed to come up with a conclusion.
He has used the two lines in the
morning glad I see and my foe
outstretched beneath the tree to say
that his foe finally fell to his tempting
illusion and metaphorically, consumed
his poison apple and died. So,
obviously, his malicious intentions
were hidden behind illusion and he
prevailed over his enemy.
CRITICAL APPRECIATION
In the first stanza, the consequence of allowing anger to continue
instead of stopping it as it begins is shown. This consequence is
simply that it will continue to grow. However, as the poem
progresses, it is seen that this continued growth of anger can yield
harmful results as the enemy, or foe, is lured toward the tree and
eats of its fruit, the poison apple. This kills his foe, as he is seen
outstretched beneath the tree, a sight the speaker is glad to see
the next morning. These final two lines explain one of the main
themes of the poem, which is that anger leads to self-destruction.
The speakers anger grows and eventually becomes so powerful
that it has changes from simple anger with another person, to
desire to see them dead. One of the subjects of Blakes work was
the underworld, or Hell, and knowing this, it can be seen that the
destruction which results from anger is not physical, but spiritual.
In addition, the death of the foe, which the speaker is glad to see,
does not spiritually affect the foe as the speaker is affected, but
only physically harms the foe.
READING MATERIAL
Interpretation and Symbolism
After reading such an amoral poem, the search for hope or
alternate meaning begins. A metaphor lives inside the poem, but
instead of making the poem less wicked, the analogy confuses and
questions faith.
Symbolically, the speaker represents God, the foe and garden
represent Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the tree
represents the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis. If
this analogy is true, it shows God rejoicing in killing his enemies,
which most people think the God they know would never do.
Blakes poem is peculiar even for todays standards, and his
analogy may be ruthless and insensitive, but he does get the
reader thinking. By looking further into the poem, we find that the
speaker nourishes and feeds his wrath, which symbolically is the
tree from the Garden of Eden. Is Blake suggesting that God fed his
wrath and anger into the tree and intended for man to eat from it?
If so, He is creating a world doomed to His wrath and anger, an
idea just about anybody would shutter at.