A POISON TREE

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

WRITTEN BY : MUHAMMAD SYAUQI BIN MD

SHAMY : MUHAMMAD SYAUQI

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 waterd it in fears,
Night and morning with my
tears;
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

WILLIAM BLAKE

OVERVIEW
A Poison Tree is a short and deceptively simple poem about
repressing anger and the consequences of doing so. The speaker
tells of how they fail to communicate their wrath to their foe and
how this continues to grow until it develops into poisonous
hatred.
The speaker describes how when they were angry with a friend,
they talked to their friend about the issue which helped them to
overcome their anger. However, the speaker was unable to do
the same with an enemy and this leads to developing resentment
and an even stronger degree of hatred. An extended metaphor of
a tree growing in the speaker's garden demonstrates how the
anger continues to grow. In the lines 'And I water'd it in fears' and
'And I sunned it with smiles' the speaker actively cultivates the
tree/anger.
Eventually the anger blossoms into a poisoned fruit, the enemy
eats the fruit and dies and the speaker seems to be glad of this.
However, there is also a sense that they see the destructiveness
of what has occurred. As the first lines acknowledge, we can
easily overcome our anger if we communicate it properly.

SYNOPSIS
The Poem is about keeping anger and its destructive
consequence. The persona talks about keeping angry
with his friend. When he talks it over with his friend, his
feeling of anger melt away. However, when he has words
with his enemy, he does not attempt to sort it out with
his enemy. Instead, he keeps his anger inside and lets
the anger fester inside him. He puts on a friendly front to
deceive others, especially his enemy about his anger.
This anger grows so strong and obsessive that it literally
grows into a tree and bore a poisonous fruit. The fruit
refers to the ugly results of the personas anger. In other
words, it controls the persona completely and when the
enemy tastes this poison, he suffers a setback or
punishment including death.

LITERAL
MEANING

STANZA
1
STANZA
2

STANZA
3

STANZA
4

The persona was angry with his friend. He

dealt with his angry feeling and his anger
melted away. He was angry with his
enemy and did not sort it out with the
latter. He became wrathful.
The persona fed his angry feelings with
fears and tears daily. He also put on a
friendly front to deceive others about his
anger.
The angry feeling grew so strongly inside
the persona that it become a poison
tree. The persona compared it to an
apple that bore fruit or an apple bright.
The enemy saw the fruit and knew it
belonged to the persona
The enemy entered the personas garden
quitly at night when it was darkto steal
the apple. In the morning, the persona
saw his enemy lying on the ground
beneath the tree.

FIGURATIVE
MEANING

STANZA

MEANING

In life, our relationships with others are

normally based on two groups of people friends, those we can get along with and
rivals, those who are hostile to us.
Disagreement among friends are never longlasting because good feelings, trust and
confidence override hostility. Friends would
normally sit down and talk

On the other hand, when we 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.

STANZA

MEANING

We allow it to fester within ourselves

with unpleasant thoughts. We keep the
anger inside and become obsessed
until it builds up and poisons our
thinking as well as our sense of right
and wrong. We let it grow out of
proportion.

Eventually, we make no effort to hide

our unpleasant feelings even at the
risk of hurting our rivals. We vmight
even feel happy when misfortune
befalls our rivals.

THEME
A number of unifying ideas or themes run through the
poem. Different readers may attach more or less
significance to each of these themes, depending upon how
they view the poem.
A growing apple tree is an extended metaphor for growing

anger

ANGER

THEME

COMMUNICATION

DECEPTION

THEME

EVIDENCE

ANALYSIS

Anger: the basic

human emotion
which sets the
events of this poem
in motion. Although
it is not necessarily
wrong in itself, how
we go about dealing
with anger is
extremely
important.

'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.'

The first stanza

(lines that make up
a section of a poem)
contrasts two
different ways of
dealing with anger
and the two
different outcomes
that may occur as a
result.

Deception: the
speaker bottles
things up and does
not talk about his
feelings to his
enemy. The enemy
sneaks into the
garden in the dead
of night to take the
fruit.

'And he knew that it

was mine,/ And into
my garden stole'

'Stole' is an
interesting choice of
word. While it has
the clear meaning
that the enemy
sneaked in under
cover of darkness it
also reminds the
reader that it is an
act of theft.

Communication:
the poet/speaker
communicates a
direct moral lesson
to the reader about
the disastrous
consequences of his

'I told my wrath', 'I

told it not.

This simple but

direct use of
antithesis (the use
of opposites) shows
how simple it would
be to talk about an
issue but equally

INTERPRETATIONS

EXAMPLE
Interpretation of the line: 'And it grew both day and night,/ Till it
bore an apple bright;'
Interpretation

Reason for
interpretation

The apple represents the

anger growing large and
ripening.

The apple has been chosen

as a symbol because it is a
common fruit and hatred
and revenge are common
feelings in human beings

The apple refers to the

apple in the biblical story of
the Garden of Eden.

The poet chooses the apple

as a reference to the
Biblical story, a tale that
most of Blakes readers
would have been familiar
with. The speaker could be
likened to a serpent

Interpretation of the line: 'And I water'd it in fears./ Night and

morning with my tears;'
Interpretation

Reason for
interpretation

The speaker intentionally

helps resentment and
anger to grow.

He deliberately cultivates
the growing tree (anger)
with tears of frustration and
a refusal to communicate
with his enemy.

The speaker accidentally

helps resentment and
anger to grow.

His tears are ones of sorrow

as he worries about his
relationship with his enemy.

POEM ANALYSIS
FORM
A Poison Tree is written in quatrains. This straight forward
grouping of sets of four lines is one of the simplest and most
recognisable poetic forms.
STRUCTURE
The poem has four stanzas. Each stanza consists of a pair of
rhyming couplets in the regular repeated pattern aabb. The
rhythm of the poem is also straightforward and regular which
makes it very easy to read, though not necessarily to understand.
The straightforward and seemingly simple way in which Blake has
written this poem contrasts with the very complex human
emotions he is describing.
CONTINUE ON NEXT
PAGE

The poem also contains two clear turning points which help the
reader to understand the character of the speaker. The first
comes after the opening two lines and shows the difference in
how the speaker handles a difficult situation in two separate
cases. In the second, symmetry is introduced in the final two lines
and shows the speaker's reaction to what has happened. The
wording at this point is ambiguous. It is a new day and a new
beginning but the result of the speaker's untold anger is still there
to see. This makes the reader continue to think about the poem
after they have finished reading it.
LANGUAG
E
The vocabulary is simple (even if some of the words are
unfamiliar today). Notice the following:
In the first stanza many of the words are monosyllables
except for the word 'angry', which is repeated twice to
emphasize emotion and to contrast with the two different
ways the speaker deals with this emotion
CONTINUE ON NEXT
PAGE

 The lines in the first stanza all start with 'I' which emphasizes that
this is a personal story told from an individual point of view

Seven of the other 12 lines in the poem start with 'and' which helps
the story to build and increase in intensity
All of the above makes the poem seem like a piece of verse for children
and like a simple nursery rhyme with a clear moral message to be
learned. The use of 'and' particularly resembles that of a child telling a
story. A difficult message is wrapped up in a form and structure which
is deliberately simple and using very straightforward vocabulary, to get
its point across.

COMPARISON

..

Comparison of 'A Poison Tree' by William Blake

with 'Envy' by Mary Lamb
SIMILARITIES

Both poems appear to be

autobiographical.
Sentence breaks occur
within lines and the
sense carries over into
the next line.
They set out to make a
moral point to the
reader.
Both are about core
human failings in
religious terms Wrath
and Envy are two of the
Seven Deadly Sins.
Both poets use an
extended metaphor
about plant life to get
their points across.

Comparison of 'A Poison Tree' by William Blake

with 'Envy' by Mary Lamb
DIFFERENCES

William Blake makes use

of simple vocabulary
while Mary Lambs
language is a little more
complex.
Blake uses four line
stanzas quatrains.
Lamb uses six line
stanzas with a more
complex rhyme scheme.
Blake uses a clear firstperson perspective and
involves himself in the
action of the poem.
Lamb observes other
peoples behavior and
comments upon it.

POETIC DEVICE

Alliteratio
ns

Assonanc
e

And I

sunned it
with smiles

My foe outstretched beneath

the tree

LITERARY
DEVICE
LITERARY DEVICE

EVIDENCE

IMAGERY

Stanza 2 gives a good

image of a tree being well
taken care of.

SYMBOL

The tree is a symbol of life

and anger to have been
given life to grow.

PERSONIFICATION

the night has veiled the

pole means night has been
personified as a person
putting a veil or cover on
the pole or light.

DICTION

my wrath did grow, my

foe beheld it shine, into
my garden stole are
example of the poets
choice of language

METAPHOR

The tree of anger like an

apple tree starts bearing

LITERARY DEVICE

EVIDENCE

IRONY

It is ironical that anger is a

tree albeit a poison tree;
that is, a negative thing is
growing into something
positive.

SIMILE

sunned it with smile and ..

Soft deceitful wiles means
the smiles and wiles are
like the sunlight

REPETITION

The word wrath is

repeated in stanza 1 for
emphasis that anger is
poisonous.

CONTRAST

and with soft deceitful

wiles indicates a contrast
in the personas approach
soft indicating a
semblance of sincerity but
this contrast strongly with
deceitful wiles or
deceiving, cunning ways

CONTEXT
Context of 'A Poison Tree
William Blake was also known for his paintings including this one,
entitled 'The Ancient of Days'
William Blake was born in 1757 and was originally an engraver. He
began adding text to his engravings in the form of poems and he
was interested as much in the presentation of poems as the poems
themselves. In 1789 he published an illustrated set of poems called
Songs of Innocence and in 1793 followed this with Songs of
Experience (from which A Poison Tree comes). The following year,
he combined these two sets of poems, publishing as Songs of
Innocence and Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the
Human Soul.
The first set of poems is, therefore, generally hopeful and positive
while the second set tends to be more negative and pessimistic.
Blake was a deeply religious man and this shows in the moral
nature of his work. His poetry was not really well-regarded during
his own life. Today he is regarded as a man ahead of his time and
he is now thought of as a major poetic writer.

MORAL VALUE

We should not allow anger to control

our life.

We should express our feelings in a

healthy way and not bottle them up

We should make peace with everyone,

friend or foe.

We should know that obsession can

lead to loss of self control and
destruction

We should be sincere, even with our

rivals.

We should not wish ill on anyone

including people we are not
comfortable with

THE END