A Poison Tree Analysis Essay

In chapter 1 titled “Chloroform (CHCI3 )” of The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum, the most interesting story developed within the chapter was the unsolved mystery of eight deaths in a refuge called Odd Fellows Home. Frederic Mors, who claimed to be responsible for all these eight murders, confessed his own guilt in front of the district attorneys. As it was said, “To prove that these elderly residents had been poisoned, they needed solid evidence. [Rumors, suspicions, and anecdotes, a confession by a suspect who might just be crazy, weren’t enough to charge a man with murder.]” (Blum 13).

The main character Melinda has stopped growing and changing, which leads to her being depressed. This is shown when Melinda states, “My tree is hopeless” (page 152). This quote does not only tell how Melinda changes due to being quiet, but it also relates to the speaker in “A Poison Tree”. These two stories relate because in “A Poison Tree” the speakers identity is also changing just like Melindas, and he also suffers in the end from not speaking up by becoming evil. Melinda feels that she is the “screwed-up ninth-grader” by not talking at all, which made others think she needed “professional help” (Page 105 & 153). This tells the reader that Melinda thinks the is useless and also an outcast. This is the “poison” that Melinda drinks and the poison that the speaker drink in “A Poison Tree” makes them evil. Even though these are two different emotions they still got poisoned from not engaging in conversations. The use of “poison” indicates that both main characters can be effected from something so toxic that it can change there whole perspective of the

The poem creates the theme that holding in anger may lead to awful consequences through first person point of view by describing the poet’s struggle to release his emotions that eventually cause him to hurt his enemy. For instance, after stating that he told his friend about his anger, and his anger died, Blake says, “ I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.” This quote from the poem shows that this is written in a first person point of view. The poet then goes on to describe how he watered down his anger, and it continued growing. At the end,

Love makes people become selfish, but it is also makes the world greater. In this poem, the world that the speaker lives and loves is not limited in “my North, my South, my East and West / my working week and my Sunday rest” (9-10), it spreads to “My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song (11). The poem’s imagery dominates most of the third stanza giving readers an image of a peaceful world in which everything is in order. However, the last sentence of the stanza is the decisive element. This element not only destroys the inner world of the speaker, but it also sends out the message that love or life is mortal.

William Blake, now one of the most famous Romantic poets of the era, was given nearly no recognition for his influential works during his lifetime. He strove to break free from the pattern of thoughts that defined common experience, and this was ever present in his works of literature. Perhaps his most renowned pieces were his two collections of poems titled Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, which illustrated the progression of man from childhood to adulthood, and demonstrated how the unpleasantries of life brings about the maturation from childhood to adulthood, and greatly affect how people view the world. In Songs of Innocence, the series that Blake wrote when he was young, he suggests that by recapturing the wonderment of childhood,

The poem “A Poison Tree” by William Blake discusses human nature’s true form. Someone who is furious with a friend would obviously want to mend the friendship, so they let their anger simmer. However, someone who is upset with an enemy has no reason to tell him or herself to not be mad because all they are to you is an enemy. Therefore, your hatred eventually takes over and you do something dreadful. This literary composition shows the readers how anger can take a toll in two different directions. The poet writes with such ease, that it makes us readers believe he’s gone through it already.

Step into the realm of an artist’s pen, as you read your way into this journey that we ascend. Author William Blake blew a drift into his palm, and spread it across the paper. Understanding the similarities and differences of his poems can decrypt a message between the two. I mean, what is the author really saying ? I am going to analyze and signify key details between the two poems “The Tyger” and “The Lamb.” I shall tell you of how the author views his work. Let’s get started shall we.

William Blake was a painter, engraver and poet of the Romantic era, who lived and worked in London. Many of Blake’s famous poems reside in his published collection of poems titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience. This collection portrays the two different states of the human soul, good and evil. Many poems in the Songs of Innocence have a counterpart poem in the Songs of Experience. The poem “A Poison Tree” is found in the Songs of Experience and it delves into the mind of man tainted with sin and corruption that comes with experience. In a simple and creative style, the religious theology of the Fall of Man is brought to life. The poem tells the story of how man fell from a state of innocence to impurity, focusing on the harmful repercussions of suppressed anger. Blake utilities many literary devices to successfully characterizes anger as an antagonist with taunting power.

The voice in this poem is one of pure happiness and innocence. In this state of joy, the infant is unaware of the world in which he lives and that awaits him. In these opening lines, we see Blake revealing the everyday modeling and structure that categorizes the world, but is absent in the simplicity and purity of childhood. The child has no name because joy needs no other name. Labeling and classification are products of organization and arrangement that the world uses to assimilate innocence into experience. Blake demonstrates that it is through this transition, that the virtue of child’s play is destroyed. Blake utilizes specific emotions such as “happy,” “joy,” “sweet,” “pretty,” “sing,” and “smile” to describe this uncorrupted state of being. There is no danger, darkness, or struggle for the infant. Instead, he exists in a care free state, free of guilt, temptation, and darkness. The birth of a child is celebrated by Blake and it stirs in us powerful emotions of peace, love, and hope.

William Blake was deeply aware of the great political and social issues during his time focusing his writing on the injustices going on in the world around him. He juxtaposed the state of human existence through his works Songs of Innocence (1789) and Songs of Experience (1794), showing differentiating sides of humanity. The contrast between Songs of

Blake’s two poems are both told from a child’s point of view, which is different from many works and forces adult readers to realize the fault in society’s standards through the bleak eyes of the many unfortunate children.

The meaning of the poem A Poison Tree is how hatred can be a powerful weapon that can lead to both physical and mental injuries if not controlled on time. In the first stanza of the poem the speaker gets angry with a friend and a foe. The speaker seizes their wrath with the friend, however, the speaker allowed their wrath to grow with their foe, “I was angry with my foe; / I told it not, my wrath did grow.” Throughout the second stanza, the speaker grows their wrath with mixed emotions, “And I water’d it in fears, / Night & morning with my tears: / And I sunned it with smiles, / And with soft deceitful wiles.” As the speaker kept growing their wrath, it blossomed to form new anger, new tricks and plans for destruction, “And it grew both day

William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The life of a hosier however was not the right path for Blake as he exhibited early on a skill for reading and drawing. Blake’s skill for reading can be seen in his understanding for and use of works such as the Bible and Greek classic literature.

“Without contraries, there is no progression.” These words of William Blake encompass his philosophy as a writer. In his work Songs of Experience, William Blake depicts human nature as fallen. Specifically, in “London” he explores the dangerous conditions of England at a time when industrialization, prostitution, poverty and child labor were prevalent. Over the course of “London,” Blake’s diction evolves from ambiguous to symbolic, ultimately illuminating the theme that the mindset of man is what oppresses him, not the social institutions in place, and in order to free himself man must break his bond with death.

The works of William Blake cannot be entirely discussed, so my project particularly focuses on 'Songs of Innocence and Experience'.