Human Nature's True Form in William Blake's Poem, A Poison Tree

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,

The famous writer, Louis L’Amour once said. “Anger is a killing thing.” L’Amour points can relate to the short story “The Cask of Amontillado” and the poem “The Poison Tree”. The Cask of Amontillado is a story of revenge where a man buries his enemy alive. The Poison Tree is a poem also about revenge where man kills his foe with a poison apple. Both works show that foe and friendship co-exist with revenge through metaphors.

The deranged, but brilliant Edgar Allan Poe once said “The scariest monsters are the ones that lurk within our souls...” Poe’s notions of the evil within are found in both “The Cask Of Amontillado” by Poe, and “A Poison Tree” by William Blake. The authors write about how revenge can create this insane creature within that will only settle for betrayal and destruction. For example, the speakers in both features are wronged by someone and their way of handling it is deceitful murder. The killers on the outside are characterized as calm people; while on the inside, they are characterized truly as people who enjoy watching those who “deserve it” suffer. Poe and Blake use characterization to convey a theme that man takes violent revenge when they are wronged.

In the first part of the poem the writer shows the difficulty he is having with taking a human life. In the second stanza he says “Making night work for us the starlight scope bringing men into killing range. This dark tone helps to emphasize the struggle the author is feeling as a soldier in war. Also he shows his emotions directly. In stanza 3 he says “The river under Vi Bridge takes the heart away”. This quote shows the feeling that the author gets

The wise mind of Mahatma Gandhi once said; “an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” By getting or attempting to get revenge every time someone upsets you, the issue is never fully resolved meaning it could resurface and bite back harder the second time. In ”A Cask of Amontillado”, by Edward Poe, the author uses irony to show how Fortunato’s death was due to Montresor’s hatred. Similarly, in the poem “A Poison Tree”, by William Blake, the author uses figurative language to show how the enemy was killed because of the narrator’s anger. In both texts, the two characters were once friends and the enemies are being deceived. Poe and Blake use figurative language and irony to show how hatred and anger can lead to deception.

He is” (21/22). The point is, it wouldn't make sense for the prisoner to think highly of a government that incarcerated him, therefore it could be believed that the speaker is actually a POW. This hypothesis also goes along with the metaphor “When like committed linnets, I” (17). Here the speaker compares himself to caged song birds, perhaps because they were caged so people could hear them sing just as his captors may have locked him up because he had information they wanted. Along with this interpretation, both the second and third stanzas contain alliteration and anaphora that help the poem to flow

Through “A Poison Tree,” William Blake conveys that hatred will grow into something harmful and overwhelming. The use of diction expresses this theme because in the poem William Blake uses the word wrath throughout the poem which leads people to think that the poem

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.

Before being good or bad, human beings are just humans who have to live with their own nature, which they sometimes cannot control. Man can do good or evil but he always makes it with a unique purpose, his personal satisfaction, because it is simply in his nature. Thus, human beings aware of good and evil are confronted with conflicting choices but they never act against their will. The poem, “The Human Abstract”, written by William Blake reflects on these characteristics of human beings and demonstrates how they are unconsciously corrupted by their own nature in a selfish way.

William Blake, born on November 28, 1757 in London, United Kingdom, wrote “A Poison Tree” to explain to everyone the wrong doings of the Church by teaching people to suppress their anger and the “evil” within them as that will only enhance their resentment furthermore. Inspired by his religion, “A Poison Tree” was written as an attempt to inform people about the problems that are created when one does not address the issue or their anger when it is still minor and resolvable. When grudges are kept unresolved, the person and the people around them are negatively impacted by the consequences of the grudge. He wanted to teach people that holding grudges hinders personal growth by making one bitter and creating a need for vengeance. In order

Have you ever experienced such a strong, developed emotion towards someone that cause them to quickly transform from a close friend to your worst enemy? In the first few lines of the poem, “A Poison Tree” written by William Blake, it says, “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.” In this part specifically, we can see that the narrator of the poem did not address the fact that he was angry with his friend and just pushed it to the side. However, by further procrastinating, the narrator’s anger and hate towards his friend quickly turns him into his enemy. When the narrator allows so much emotion to build up, causing him to turn against his friend, we are shown that trapping your emotions inside of yourself and not expressing them only let's them become bigger and more prominent in our lives. With the original title of this poem being “Christian Forbearance,” I believe it's original title provides a better insight to what the poem is really about rather than the new one of “A Poison Tree.” Forbearance meaning self-control and the Christian religion believing strongly in peace, I believe it is best to say that the original title most likely means to keep peace and have self-control. This definition is very well incorporated into the meaning of the poem because the poem’s narrator needs to learn peace and self-control in order to avoid this situation he is in in the first place. In the poem, “A Poison Tree,” the author, William Blake, uses a rhyme scheme, a hidden meaning, an unlikely metaphor, as well as multiple tone shifts in order to get across to the reader that holding in your emotions, rather than expressing them, only allows for them to grow and become stronger.

“A Poison Tree” by William Blake is written as a part of the Songs of Experience in the “Songs of Innocence and Experience” published in 1794. William Blake is an English poet born in 1757 in London. He was a poet and a painter. Songs of Experience is one of the most important Blake’s works along with Songs of Innocence. These Blake’s works are interesting from the painter’s perspective too, as he not only wrote the poems but made paintings along with them. In his works he developed an extensive mythology that he uses to connect his works. The “A Poison Tree” itself is very easy to read, without highly complex and hidden messages. The author describes how to deal with anger and describes how dealing incorrectly can lead to stronger feelings

“A Poison Tree”, by William Blake, relates the experiences of a speaker who bottles his emotions up, instead of letting them be known. Consequently, the speaker’s rage brews within him—festering and boiling his very being. Eventually, this fury cannot be contained, and so, he unleashes it upon his foe—the object of his rage. Throughout the poem, William Blake wishes to convey to the reader the consequences of a self-imposed gag order on your emotions. In order to achieve his goal, Blake utilizes alluring diction and syntax, as well as a litany of figurative devices, abundantly throughout his poem.

“A Poison Tree” takes place in the speaker’s garden. The poem tells a story about three individuals. First, the speaker became angry with his friend, but he forgave his friend and the issue was forgotten; however, he has an issue with his foe, and this issue would cost someone’s life. When he sees his enemy, he has to put on a fake smile. His anger grows both day and night, and his tears help the anger grow. His foe sees an apple on the tree in the speaker’s garden; moreover, he wants the apple, and the apple looks sweet and juicy, which entices him to eat it. After taking a bite, the enemy became ill and dies because the apple is poisonous. When the speaker awakes the next morning, his anger is kindled when he sees his enemy outstretched under the tree dead. The speaker may be William Blake himself. Blake definitely had enemies when he was alive. Possibly, this is someone who has wronged him, for example, the British soldier who makes a threat on his and his wife’s life. Blake may be sending a message through the poem warning his readers to be careful how friends are chosen, who becomes an enemy, how anger can grow inside someone if it is allowed to, and how someone feels when justice is served. Or, another possible meaning may be, anyone can choose to forgive a friend, one could have anger in their heart until it turns to sin, and sin would definitely carry anyone further than they can imagine. Even to the point of murder.

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