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A Poison Tree by: William Blake. Author Biography. William Blake was born in 1757 in London and from a young age, spoke of having visions. At age 10 his parents sent him to drawing school; At age 12 he began writing poetry; and at age 14 he became the apprentice to an engraver.
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Author Biography • William Blake was born in 1757 in London and from a young age, spoke of having visions. • At age 10 his parents sent him to drawing school; At age 12 he began writing poetry; and at age 14 he became the apprentice to an engraver. • In 1782, he married Catherine Boucher and taught her how to read, write and draw. • He worked as an engraver and illustrator but was not very successful. • He started to teach his younger brother Robert the arts but he shortly fell ill and died in 1787. William claimed to have seen his brothers spirit leave his body. • Blake's first printed works protested against war and tyranny. • He preferring imagination over reason. • In 1800 he experienced many spiritual insights that prepared him for his more mature work which showed the human spirit triumphant over reason. • While some people praised Blake's artistry, others thought him insane. Blake's poetry was not well known by the general public.
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 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 stoleWhen the night had veiled the pole;In the morning glad I seeMy foe outstretched beneath the tree.
Summary • This poem is about the dangers that come from holding grudges. It talks about a speaker who gets mad at a friend, but is able to forgive him/her. However, later on he becomes angry with a “foe”, and his anger grows into a tree and the speaker’s enemy ends up dyeing because he eats of the fruit of his wrath. The speaker is then pleased to see his enemy dead beneath the tree.
Form • The poem is made up of four quatrains (each with two rhyming couplets). • The Rhyme scheme is AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH
Definitions A A B B C C D D E EFFGGHH 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 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 stoleWhen the night had veiled the pole;In the morning glad I seeMy foe outstretched beneath the tree. to be exposed to the sun deceitfulcunning or trickery; to beguile, entice, or lure to sneak the night is so dark that the North star (Polaris) cannot be seen
Poetic Devices • Metaphor • The tree and its fruit (the apple) symbolize the speaker’s hatred and anger toward this person. As the tree grows so does his anger, and eventually it produces a fruit that kills the enemy, so too can our anger cause harm to others. • Meter • The poem’s language has a “bounciness” within it that is a product of its meter. • Lines 2, 4, 14, and 16 are iambic tetrameters. (tetra meaning four and iamb meaning a pair of syllables in which the first is unstressed and the second is stressed.) I told my wrath, my wrath did end. • The rest of the lines are trochees, which are similar to iambs but the stress is switched. I was angry with my friend.
Personal Response • I like this poem because it shows that when we are angry at someone who we care about, we fell like we can confront them and our anger ceases because we know that they only want the best for us. However, when we are angry with someone who we do not want to confront, our angry does not go away and it can grow and fester, and cause bad things to happen to both of the people involved. • I also liked the simplicity in the language, which makes it easy to understand, but is still really powerful.
Picture Sources • http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/about-blake.html • http://shobey1kanoby.deviantart.com/art/The-Poison-Tree-II-116287985 • http://sarsparillavalentine.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/rsa-week-4/bal7040/ • http://stunnedbanana.blogspot.com/2012_11_01_archive.html • http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/116 • http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/steal?s=t • http://www.shmoop.com/poison-tree/rhyme-form-meter.html
