A POISON TREE

INTRODUCTION

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In A Nutshell
William Blake is somewhat rare among British poets: he was both a poet and a painter. Indeed, during his lifetime he made ends meet with
his talent for drawing, painting, and illustrating. Despite his popularity now (he is considered to be one of the six major male Romantic poets
of the early nineteenth century), Blake was relatively unknown during his lifetime, except as a working-class engraver and illustrator. Blake is
also unique in that he combined his two artistic talents and produced a series of what he called "Illuminated Books," books that featured his
pictures and poetry on the same page! You can read a very brief account of how Blake made these books here, and you can see some
pictures of what they look like over at "Best of the Web."
One of Blake's first illuminated books was called Songs of Innocence (it came out in 1789), which was later combined with his Songs of
Experiencein 1794. The full title of the volume in 1794 was Songs of Innocence and of Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the
Human Soul. Now, as you might have already guessed, the Songs of Innocence tend to bethough aren't alwaysmore innocent. They
feature lambs, children singing, and that sort of thing, whereas the Songs of Experience tend to be a bit darker.
"A Poison Tree," as you've probably figured out by now, appears in Songs of Experience. It's a poem about anger, revenge, and death
(some of Blake's favorite themes), which contrast markedly with many of the poems in theSongs of Innocence that feature, well, happier
trees and more benign themes. In this poem, Blake is really indulging and exploring his darker side, and the darker side of the human
condition by extension.

WHY SHOULD I CARE?

Do you know anyone who really, really annoys you? Somebody who, no matter what they do, always manages to get under your skin?
Maybe it's a roommate who refuses to take out the trash or do the dishes, or perhaps it's a sibling who always listens to their music too loud
when you're trying to study or insists on taking the front seat of the car all the time.
Have you ever noticed that when you talk to them reasonably about what they're doing that makes you angry, everything becomes much
simpler? If you don't say anything, though, your anger just festers and grows, and grows, and makes you more miserable by the minute.
There's a good chance that you're familiar with this experience, and it is this experience that William Blake's poem discusses, though in a
more gruesome fashion.
Now, we admit, sometimes it's easier just to walk away. But sometimes a confrontation is in order. If we refuse to talk to people about what
they're doing that is bugging us, we're the ones who really suffer; we, essentially, "water" and "sun" (in Blake's terms) our anger until it
blossoms into a poisonous apple. Granted, growing a poison apple with nothing but hate is a pretty unlikely scenariowell, it's actually
impossiblebut it's really an extended metaphor for how destructive anger can be. Sure, it won't turn into an apple that will kill your enemy,
but it can become something equally destructive.
Just think: there have been many troubled people who have "snapped" and gone on to do something just as destructive (just think of the
school shootings alone over the last twenty years or so). In a sense, Blake's poem urges us (you included!) to talk about our anger and
frustrationsnot just with our friends, but with our enemies as well. Perhaps this can, at the very least, ease our internal trouble and prevent
us from harming others.

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A POISON TREE: TEXT OF THE

POEM

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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 stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

A POISON TREE SUMMARY

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The speaker is presenting two scenarios here. In the first, he (we're assuming it's a he) is in a tiff with his friend, a spat if you will. But wait!
There's no need to fret. He told his friend about his anger and guess what? His anger went away. Presto! Ah, the power of communication.
Scenario #2: We get the same basic set-up here. The speaker's mad again, but this time he's mad at his enemy. Will he follow the same
route? You bet your bippy he won't. He keeps mum about his anger for his enemy and, well, that anger just grows. The speaker's anger is
only heightened by his fears, and his continued deception about his true feelings.

Then, in an odd, metaphorical twist, the speaker's anger blossoms into an apple. Yum! At least the speaker's enemy thinks so. One night, he
sneaks into the speaker's garden (presumably for a delicious apple snack), but it doesn't work out so well for him. The next morning, the
speaker is happy to see that his foe lying dead under the tree that bore the (apparently poison) apple. Not good.

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STANZA 1 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this

poem line-by-line.
Lines 1-2
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

As the poem opens, the speaker describes how he was angry with his friend. Bad times.
Still, he told his friend he was angry ("I told my wrath"), and presumably why he was angry, and his anger disappeared. Happy
days are here again!
We notice that these lines are linked with end rhyme and a pretty consistent rhythm. We wonder if this form will continue. (Spoiler
alert: Check out "Form and Meter" for more on this.)

Lines 3-4
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

The speaker describes a different scenario, now. He was once angry with his "foe" (a.k.a. his enemy), but didn't tell him about it.
Since the speaker did not talk about his anger ("I told it not"), his anger got bigger and bigger ("my wrath did grow").
You know how, when you keep something bottled up inside, it tends to make that feeling more intense and overwhelming? We're
guessing that this is what's going on for the speaker here.

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STANZA 2 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this

poem line-by-line.
Lines 5-8
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

The speaker talks more about how his anger grows. Using figurative language, he treats this anger very much like a plant. A plant
needs water and sun in order to grow, and so apparently does his anger.
He watered it with his "fears" and his "tears" and made sure it got plenty of sunshine.
Now, we know that the speaker didn't give his anger-plant real sunshine. Instead, he gave it "smiles" and "deceitful wiles." These
are more like "fake" sunshine.
They help the plant to growlike real sunshine would for a real plant..
A wile is a "crafty, cunning, or deceitful trick." "Deceitful wiles," then, are super-deceitful tricks (or really, really cunning traps). The
speaker suggests that he is a very deceptive person and that he is planning something very sinister and mischievous. Whatever it
is, though, his anger seems to dig it, since those deceitful schemes are like sunshine to it.
A growing plant is usually a good, positive thing, a symbol of life. It seems ironic that a growing plant is being compared to a
growing anger. Is anger a good thing in the world of this poem?

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STANZA 3 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this

poem line-by-line.
Lines 9-12
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,

Because of the speaker's efforts, his plant (anger) eventually bears ("bore") fruit: an "apple bright." Yum!
Wait, is this apple a good thing?
The speaker's enemy sure thinks so. The enemy sees the fruit of the speaker's wrath, and somehow he's able to recognize that it
belongs to the speaker. It's not clear how, though.
Let's read on to see if that's explained later in the poem

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STANZA 4 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this

poem line-by-line.
Lines 13-16
And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Aha! The enemy has seen this anger-apple in the speaker's garden. So, it's safe to say that's how he knows it is the speaker's.
That doesn't stop the enemy from trying to steal it, though. After he has seen the apple, the "foe" sneaks into the speaker's garden
at night.
The word "stole" is a past tense of the verb "steal," which in this context means something like "sneak in secretly." This word also
suggests "steal" (like a thief steals). It seems that the speaker is blaming his foe, or calling him a thief.
This happens when it's super-dark out. In the phrase "night had veiled the pole," pole refers to the top of the earth, as in the "north
pole," but it can also mean the pole star, also known as the North star, also known as Polaris. It's an important star for navigation,
since it's bright and it stays pretty much fixed in the sky. Tonight, though, the night has "veiled" it, covered it up. This star, used in
navigating folks safely through danger, is not visible. Uh-oh!
To suggest that the night (an abstract time) could actually cover up the star (like a person might) is to use personification.
Apparently, at some point in the super-dark night, the enemy eats the apple, which ends up killing him or making him fall asleep.
It's not clear which, although the speaker is glad to see him laid out in the garden. We're going to go with death for the enemy
here, since the speaker would likely not be too happy if his enemy both ate his apple and used his garden like a cheap hotel.
Still, the word "glad" is a bit ambiguous here (it could have more than one meaning). "Glad" could refer to the morning, as in "the
morning is glad," or it can refer to the speaker's feelings when he sees his "foe" lying "beneath the tree."
Either way, it seems like bad times for the enemy, good times for the speaker. Or is it?

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PLANTS

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Symbol Analysis
The poem is called "A Poison Tree," so, naturally, vegetation plays an important role. Indeed, the speaker's anger grows until it eventually
produces a poisonous apple that, presumably, kills his "foe." Plants, trees, and especially the processes necessary to make them grow
(water, sun, care) are our speaker's primary metaphors for how anger develops from a feeling into a destructive action.

Lines 4: The speaker says his wrath grows because he didn't say anything about it. Of course, anger doesn't literally grow, so
growth is here a metaphor for the process by which one's anger becomes greater and greater.
Lines 5-6: The speaker waters his anger (with tears and fears), but he doesn't literally water it because it's not a real thing.
Watering is here a metaphor for the development and increasing power of one's anger.
Lines 7-8: The speaker gives his anger sunshine, only he doesn't literally give it sunshine. "Sunn[ing]" is here again a metaphor
for the things we do to make our anger grow. Does it sound like a pit of snakes in here? Ah. That repetition of the S sound in the
beginning of "sunned" and "smiles" is called alliteration.
Line 9: The speaker's anger continues to grow. Anger doesn't literally grow, so growth is here a metaphor for the process by which
one's anger becomes greater and greater.
Line 10: The speaker's anger bears an "apple bright." Maybe in Blake's head anger can bear fruit, but we know that the apple is
just a symbol of, or metaphor for, the end result of one's potent rage (in this case, a poisonous fruit that will kill a man). The
repetition of the "b" in "bore" and "bright" gives us another example of alliteration.
Line 13: The speaker tells us that his foe "stole" into his garden. The garden here seems like a metaphor for the place in our mind
where we let our anger fester, grow, develop, and become, essentially, destructive.
Line 16: At last, the speaker's anger has matured in plant terms into a tree. The damage that it causes is also fully developed. The
"foe" lies dead beneath the tree, which comes to stand for the giant, destructive thing that unchecked anger can become.

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NIGHT AND DAY

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Symbol Analysis
The speaker is adamant about telling us what time of day it is. He waters his anger both at night and in the morning. He gives it sunshine (in
the daytime). It grows "both day and night." The "foe" eats the apple at night, and the speaker sees him dead in the morning. The speaker
suggests that the growth and development of anger is something that happens all the time, both at night and in the daytime. He implies that it
is, in effect, a long-term thing that takes over our lives.

Lines 5-6: The speaker waters his anger at night and in the morning with fears and tears. He doesn't literally water it because it's
not a real plant, so watering is here a metaphor for the process of cultivating one's anger, for adding fuel to the fire, we might say.
Line 7-8: The speaker gives his anger the sunshine it needs with his "smiles" and "soft deceitful wiles." He doesn't literally give it
sunshine because it's not a plant, so "sunning" is here a metaphor for giving one's anger the nutrients it needs (Vitamin D
maybe?).
Line 9: The speaker's anger grows "day and night." There is no time that's it's not developing.
Line 14: The speaker says the "foe" came into his garden when "night had veiled the pole." That's significant, because "the pole"
could refer to the North star, which was used to guide people safely home. Here, though, when his anger is at its height, the pole
is invisible to the speaker, and all is plunged into darkness. Thisimagery is telling of the speaker's misguided, even ignorant
condition, all brought on by anger.
Line 15: The speaker sees his "foe outstretched" in the morning, when light at last shines down on the scene. It's interesting that
the foe's actual death is hidden from us, the readers. Perhaps the speaker, in his own darkness, is not aware of the consequences
that such a tree might pose.

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LIQUID IMAGERY

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Symbol Analysis
The speaker talks about cultivating anger as if it were a plant. So, naturally he must "water" it. Only, he doesn't water it with water, but rather
with his tears. Sadness, anger, and other negative feelings become the life-giving liquid that causes the anger to grow. It is arguable that,
because the speaker waters his anger with negative things like tears and fears, it eventually bears a poisonous apple.

Line 5: The speaker waters his anger with "fears." He doesn't literally water it because it is not a plant, so "watered" is here
a metaphor for the cultivation of anger, for adding fuel to the fire as we might say
Line 6: The speaker also waters his anger with "tears." While you could probably water your plants with your tears (they do have
water in them, after all!), it seems more likely that the speaker is again speaking metaphorically about the cultivation of anger. It
seems that pain and sadness is an important element in the cultivation of anger. Do you see them related in this way, too?

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THE ENEMY

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Symbol Analysis
Blake's poem is about being angry with an enemy and getting even with him. The speaker does a lot of things to make his "foe" really seem
like an enemy. For example, he tells how he (the "foe") "stole" into his garden, which implies that the enemy has a proclivity (i.e., a tendency
toward) for thievery. Ultimately, though, the enemy is the victim of the speaker's anger-apple. While he may admit that he was glad to see his
foe laid low, we're left feeling far more conflicted, and more sensitive to the damage our own anger might cause others.

Lines 3-4: The speaker refuses to tell his "foe" about his anger. Something about this person stops him from communicating with
him in the same way as he is able to communicate with his friend.
Line 11: The "foe" sees the apple shining. The apple is a symbol for the harmful outcome of hoarding and cultivating negative
emotions like anger.
Line 13: The enemy sneaks into the speaker's garden at night. The implication is that he is a thief of some kind. As readers, we're
rooting against him.
Line 16: The enemy lies dead beneath the tree. Harsh! The tree is here a symbol of, or metaphor for, the dangerous
consequences of festering anger. Although the speaker is high-fiving the world, we're left to take a sober lesson from his
ultimately disturbing example.

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ANALYSIS: FORM AND METER

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Iambic Tetrameter, Trochaic Trimeter, and a Cat in a Luxury Car

While you were reading this poem, you should have noticed a certain bounciness in the language of the lines. That, Shmoopers, is no
accident. That's meter at work! But how does it work? Let's take a closer look, shall we?
First off, the meter of "A Poison Tree" varies quite a bit. The most basic type of meter found here is something that folks in the know would
call iambic tetrameter. What's that? Well, it's a type of meter in which there are four (tetra- is Greek for four) iambs. (An iamb is pair of
syllables in which the first is unstressed and the second is stressed.) So, for example, check out line 2:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
When you read this out loud, you should hear four iambs together: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM. Still, lines 2, 4, 14, and 16 are the
only pure iambic tetrameter lines in the poem. The other lines in the poem can be seen as deviations from this basic meter.

Take, for example, line 1:

I was angry with my friend.
The first syllable in this line is stressed, followed by an unstressed syllable. That's called a trochee, which is pretty much the opposite of an
iamb. You will also notice that there are only seven syllables in this line, which means there can only be three syllable pairs (in this case,
three trochees), with one leftover syllable. So, technically we would have trochaic trimeter, with one oddball, stressed syllable at the end. The
process by which a metrical pattern is cut short like this (it can be at the beginning or the end) is called catalexis (just picture a cat driving a
Lexus). Most of the lines in the poem have seven syllables and adhere to this pattern.
But why would Blake do this? Well, if you think about it, this poem is about the speaker and the speaker's enemy. It makes sense, then, to
render the lines in two main metrical forms: iambic tetrameter and trochaic trimeter. We also noted that a trochee is the opposite of an iamb,
so even the metrical bases of these lines seem at odds, the same way the speaker and the enemy are. And then we have the one extra beat
at the end of the trochaic lines, which is a kind of bump in the rhythm of the poem, a disturbance of a sort.
Now, let's see. What else is added to the mix in the speaker and his enemy's conflict? Aha! The anger-apple. We can see how this extra
bump at the end of the line might be a purposeful reminder of the key disturbing element in the poem: the speaker's unresolved anger.

Child's Play?
The poem also rhymes, and therefore it has a rhyme scheme. In this poem, the rhyme scheme is: AABB. This means that in each four-line
stanza, the first two lines rhyme (their rhyming sound is indicated with an A), and the last two lines rhyme (B). These rhyming pairs are
called couplets, probably because they are like little verbal couples. And when you put two couplets together, you get a fourlined stanza called a quatrain.
Now, we know what you're all thinking: "This poem seems so simple at first!" The language really isn't difficult, the sentences are pretty basic,
and in general the effect of the rhyme scheme makes it seem kind of like a children's poem. In reality, that's what it is partly meant to
resemble (Blake once said that he thought his ideal readers were children, by the way).
But don't let the sing-songy rhymes fool you. Blake is notorious for wrapping up complex ideas in very easy-to-unwrap packages. This union
of simplicity and complexity proves that even supposedly "simple" things can be vehicles for profound observations about human nature. In a
way, this approach allows for multiple levels of appreciation. You can simply sit back and enjoy the great sounds of the poem and its
rhyming, or you can dive deeper, and really plumb its depths for meaning. Can you guess which option we chose? Right! What, did our
scuba suit give us away?

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ANALYSIS: SPEAKER

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The speaker wants to share with us. Isn't that nice? He'd like to share with us how he killed his enemy. Dude, we said share, not scare.
Still, scaring is really the point of the speaker's story in the first place. He's relating his own mistakes in order to help us avoid the same kind
of misstep in future. And he does so in a very effective, surprising way. He's not into saying things like "Oh, what a fool I was!" Nope. Instead,
he takes you through the process that led him to poison his foe with the symbolic anger-apple and, importantly, allow us to the be the one to
cast judgment on him.
Think about that for a second. Most people, when they want you to learn from their mistakes, are pretty explicit in telling you how terrible they
feel now, and how awful their mistake was. In a weird way, this kind of judgmentwhile meaning to convince us of the importance of the
lesson on one handstops you from judging them yourself on the other. The person really is judging themselves for us and saying, "Don't be
an idiot like I was."

We get none of that in this poem, though. The speaker leaves us with this chilling note: "glad I see / My foe outstretched beneath the tree"
(15-16). Uf. That's extra-creepy, if you ask us. And, of course, that's precisely the reaction that the speaker is going for. By not denouncing
his own actions, the speaker is selfless enough to let us do that to him. As a result, his lesson is all the more effective, because it invites us
to draw our own conclusions about him, rather than give us his own pre-packaged judgments.
That's really quite big of the speaker. It seems that he's so invested in us taking a lesson from his mistake that he's willing to use himself as
the most shocking example of how not to behave. Thanks for the tip, creepy guy!

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ANALYSIS: SETTING

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Where It All Goes Down

We get very few details on the setting in this poem. The most identifiable place here is the speaker's garden, which features that bright, shiny
anger-apple that lures the foe in: Chomp. Ugh. Thump.
Now, what transpires in the speaker's garden is pretty straightforward (the enemy sneaks in in the dead of night and is found dead there the
next morning), but the circumstances deserve a bit of attention. Our first question, for example, is why is the speaker's applewhich is the
symbolic representation of his unreleased angerso attractive to the target of that anger, the enemy? One way to look at it might be that that
speaker's anger produced a similar reaction in the enemy. In that sense, his anger attracted the enemy's attention, luring him into the garden.
To continue down this line of thought, the enemy taking a bit of the apple would be his own unhealthy, unresolved anger that's directed right
back at the speaker. Just as the speaker grows the poison apple of anger, then, the angry enemy is likewise poisoned.
Of course, all this takes place in the speaker's garden, and it's his apple that's to blame. In this way, the setting subtly reminds us that, while
the enemy may have been literally trespassing in the poem, it is the speaker who bears the ultimate responsibility for his foe's death. For
shame, creepy gardener, for shame.

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ANALYSIS: SOUND CHECK

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As we discuss in the "Form and Meter" section, Blake's short poem sounds a lot like a nursery rhyme, or a teaching tool to help kids learn a
lesson about anger. The rhymes are pretty easy to remember, and the story works to illustrate the consequences of anger. Imagine trying to
explain to somebody the potential consequences of being angry all the time. You could say, "Well, my mother always used to say, '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 poem loves to repeat sounds, and this type of repetition makes it seem like something you learned as a kid. Take the lines "And I
sunned it with smiles, / And with soft deceitful wiles" (7-8). Notice the repetition of the S sound here? That's alliteration at work, and it's
something that shows up again with all the B sounds in lines 9 and 10. The rhyme and these repeated beginning consonant sounds combine
to create a kind of sonic play in this poem, one that makes it sing-songy and just fun to hear or read out loud, like a typical kids' poem.
Speaking of kids, there's one other sound that's repeated a lot in this poem. It's the sound you make when you say "and." That could be
because almost half of the poem's lines start with this word. When lines are repeated in the same way again and again, this is
called anaphora. To us, it sounds a bit like any conversation we've ever had with a four-year-old: "And then the dinosaur came and he bit the
fire truck and then the truck had a wheel fall off and the man came to fix the wheel and dinosaur bit the man on his toe and the man had to
run away and the dinosaur chased him and..." (repeat until you zone out). At the same time, though, this repetition lends a sort of urgency to
the poem, and lets us know that the speaker really wants to get this story off his chest.
And lest you think the poem is just for the kiddos, don't forget that, really, this is seriously creepy stuff. Very few kids' stories end with
someone laughing over the fallen corpse of their enemy. And so, we see that, while this poem has a lot of kid-friendly sounds in it, it's theme
is adult-oriented. It's as though the poem lures us in with an approachable sound palate, but then sneaks in this very sobering reflection
when we're not lookingjust like a foe, sneaking into our poisonous apple orchard. Or something.

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ANALYSIS: WHAT'S UP WITH

THE TITLE?

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The title of this poem announces its central metaphor. The poem is called "A Poison Tree," and at the end a "foe" lies "outstretched beneath
a tree" (16) after eating the (possibly poisoned) apple that grows on it. The apple may be poisonous because it is the child of the speaker's
angerit is sustained and grown via negative emotions, and it's been growing for quite a while.
This poem isn't just about a weird, poisonous tree, though. The poison tree can be seen as a metaphor for what happens when you stay
angry for too long a time. Have you ever stewed about something for an extended period of time? Sure you have. We all have. Eventually,
though, all that negative energy has to come out, and when it does it's not pretty. Nurturing and feeding anger all the time will eventually end
up poisoning somebody, right?
To add another layer to the title, consider that William Blake was a deeply religious man. Much of his poetry should be read with Biblical
themes in mind. The idea of a tree that is poisonous recalls the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil from the book of Genesis (the first book
of the Judeo-Christian bible). In Genesis, God tells Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of this tree, which they end up doing despite this order.
Eating from this tree is the first sin, and as a result, death, painin short everything that sucksenters the world. Blake's title takes a certain
cue from this story, and the poem is partly about sin and doing things one shouldn't (like sneaking into a garden to steal an apple or letting
one's anger grow and grow).
In the end, the title prepares us for the lesson that will be delivered by the poem's end, and it also identifies the way in which the poem will
deliver the lesson. Neat, huh?

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ANALYSIS: CALLING CARD

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Sinister Content with Nonchalant Narration

Okay. Let's face it: "A Poison Tree" isn't the most pleasant poem in the word. It's about a guy who gets really angry and then eventually
delights in the death of his "foe." Isn't that nice? No it isn't nice. It's creepy times ten. The strange thing is (and this goes for a number of
Blake's other poems in bothSongs of Innocence and Songs of Experience) the poem has a childish quality it to it (we compare it to a nursery
rhyme over in the "Form and Meter" and "Sound Check" sections). This conflict between the poem's form (with its pleasing sounds, rhythm,
and rhyme) and its sobering content (you know, that stuff about unchecked anger and a dead body in a garden) is a hallmark of Blake's style,
particularly in his early poetry. He's a master of delivering grim insights in sweet, unassuming little packages.

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ANALYSIS: TOUGH-O-METER

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(1) Sea Level

From a technical standpoint, "A Poison Tree" is not a very difficult poem. Blake doesn't use any strange or obsolete words, and his
sentences are short and memorable. Indeed, at times it seems that the poem is meant for children. This, however, only enhances its
effectiveness in conveying an important truth. While a reader may be humming along to the poem's ear-friendly rhythms, sounds, and
rhymes, the words themselves carry a powerfully sobering reflection. Like Mary Poppins, Blake provides a spoonful of sugar to help his
medicine go down.

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ANALYSIS: TRIVIA

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Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge

Many people thought Blake was a lunatic. One of the most famous poets of the dayRobert Southey (whom nobody cares about
anymore)referred to him as a man of "great but undoubtedly insane genius." (Source.)
William Wordsworthanother very famous poet of Blake's erasaid upon Blake's death: "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad,
but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott." (Scott and Byron
were, without a doubt, the most popular literary figures of the early nineteenth century.) Wise words, William. (Source.)
Blake often claimed that he had visions. As a child, he said he saw God through the window and that he once saw a tree full of angels.
(Source.)
Here's a kcirt looc Blake was very good at writing backwardsmirror writing. This skill came in handy when he began producing his
illuminated books. (Source.)

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ANALYSIS: STEAMINESS
RATING

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Exactly how steamy is this poem?

PG
"A Poison Tree" isn't a sexual poem at all. It is a bit violent, though. Even though it's never clearly explained just how the speaker's enemy
gets laid out under the tree, we're guessing he's not taking a siesta. Add to that some creepy gloating over the body on the speaker's part,
and you get a perverse element that isn't sexual, but still disturbing.

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ANALYSIS: ALLUSIONS

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When poets refer to other great works, people, and

events, its usually not accidental. Put on your supersleuth hat and figure out why.
Biblical References
Book of Genesis (Title; 9-11)

A POISON TREE THEME OF

ANGER

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"A Poison Tree" is a poem about anger, and, more importantly, some of the destructive consequences that can result when we cultivate our
anger, rather than try a more productive outlet for this potentially dangerous emotion (like stamp collecting!). The fact that Blake refers to
anger as "wrath" suggests that the poem is about a more serious type of anger, a vengeful or spiteful feeling of biblical magnitude ("wrath" is
commonly used in the Bible to refer to the anger of Old Testament God). In other words, this is seriously powerful stuff that must be carefully
guarded against.

Questions About Anger

1.
2.
3.

We know from the poem that anger is bad (mkay?). But does the poem offer any advice about how to deal with people who make
us angry, upset, frustrated, etc.? If so, what? If not, why not?
How does the speaker feel about his anger? Does he regret it in the end? How do you know?
How does the sing-songy rhyme scheme of this poem impact the way you understand the speaker's anger?

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
While Blake's poem illustrates some of the destructive consequences of anger, it also suggests that it is a normal emotion that needs to be
dealt with properly. Talk it out, folks.
"A Poison Tree" tells us that anger is never just anger by itself. It needs fear and sorrow to develop. Worst recipe ever.

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A POISON TREE THEME OF

LANGUAGE AND
COMMUNICATION

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In the first stanza of "A Poison Tree," the speaker says, "I told my wrath, my wrath did end" (2) and "I told it not, my wrath did grow" (4). The
poem suggests that talking about emotions is an important part of dealing with them. It also suggests that not talking about our emotions,
instead harboring and cultivating them, will lead to poisonous "fruit"the poem's metaphor for the dire consequences of anger that's not
dealt with properly. Trust usthat is one bad apple. The good news is, though, that we can avoid the speaker's grim fate. We've just got to
get the bad stuff off our chest on a regular basis.

Questions About Language and Communication

1.
2.
3.
4.

Why might the speaker discuss his anger with his friend but not his "foe"?
How does the enemy recognize that the anger-apple is the speaker's, if there is no communication happening?
Might the speaker have communicated his anger to the speaker in ways that weren't necessarily expressed in speech (i.e., nonverbal communication)? How would we know if he did?
Is it possible to keep negative emotions bottled up and not become unhappy and miserable?

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
That's it. Let it all out. "A Poison Tree" suggests that angerand perhaps other negative emotionscan be eliminated or contained by
talking about them.
"A Poison Tree" shows us how anger begets more anger, attracting others' hate to our own. It's like a bad vibes magnet.

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A POISON TREE THEME OF LIES

AND DECEIT

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"A Poison Tree" is all about lies and deception. The speaker suns his anger with "soft deceitful wiles," and this anger eventually produces an
apple that is deceptively bright and shiny (deceptively because the apple turns out to be poisonous, not made of wax). The speaker isn't the
only guilty party, however. In the last stanza, the "foe" "steals" into the garden, presumably in order to steal the apple whose bright, shiny
peel must be irresistible. Anger isn't just anger all by itself, then. The poem suggests that its good buddies lies and deceit also accompany it.

Questions About Lies and Deceit

1.
2.
3.
4.

Whom do you see as the victim in this poem? Do you sympathize more with the speaker (who is deceitful) or the speaker's "foe"
(who steals the apple)?
How are anger and deceit related to each other in this poem?
How does the speaker deceive himself in the poem?
Does the speaker attempt to deceive the reader at any point in the poem? If so, when?

Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devils advocate.
"A Poison Tree" implies that negative emotions somehow generate each other. In other words, anger leads to lies, deceit, revenge, and,
even in some instances, death. It's a vicious cycle (and not a Harley-Davidson).
Although the enemy essentially breaks into the speaker's garden, we still think that he is the victim. The speaker's deceit and anger seem
much worse than just stealing an apple. One point for the dead guy.

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A POISON TREE ANGER

QUOTES
See more famous quotes from poetry

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How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #1

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end. (1-2)
The rhyme between "friend" and "end" suggests that, perhaps, it is much easier for anger to "end" when it comes to friends, rather than
enemies. Perhaps friendship is necessary before anger can finally subside.
Anger
Quote #2

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow. (3-4)
If the rhymes in the first two lines emphasize the connection between the end of wrath and friendship, lines 3-4 emphasize just the opposite.
The word "foe" rhymes with "grow," which suggests that having enemies, or even perceiving someone as your foe, is the source from which
destructive anger springs.
Anger
Quote #3

And I watered it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles (5-8).
The repetition of "and" three times in this stanza suggests how things like anger and "fears," "tears," and "soft deceitful wiles" are connected.
The list-like effect of the word "and" implies that all these things are on equal footing with one another, connected in a chain of negativity.
Anger

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How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #4

And my foe beheld it shine.

And he knew that it was mine, (11-12)
Mmm! That's good anger-apple! The speaker's anger is simultaneously attractive to his foe, and it's also clearly identifiable as to whose
apple it is. This makes us think that anger can be attractive to others in the sense that it attracts the anger of others (You're m ad at me? Well,
then I'm mad at you!). Our anger, too, is not an anonymous creation. It's recognizable to others, in part because it's so deeply seated in our
personalities. Scary.
Anger

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A POISON TREE LANGUAGE

AND COMMUNICATION QUOTES
See more famous quotes from poetry

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1
How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end. (1-2)
The poem's first two lines show how anger can be literally contained or curbed: by talking about it! They enact this theme formally as well. In
line 2, the words "my wrath, my wrath" appear sandwiched (this figure is called chiasmus) between "I told" and "did end" in such a way that
suggests talking is a way of containing anger and making it go away.
Language and Communication
Quote #2

And I watered it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles. (5-8)
The repetition of "and" three times in this stanza illustrates how closely linked the development of anger and a lack of communication are. It
is as if the poem is saying "I didn't speak about my anger and then x happened and then y happened and then z happened."
Language and Communication
Quote #3

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 (9-12)
Neither the speaker nor the "foe" speak to each other. The communication here is entirely non-verbal, and it leads to tragic consequences
(for the enemy, at least). The speaker and his foe employ other senses and physical gestures (in this stanza it's sight; in the previous stanza
it's tears, fears, and smiles), rather than communicating directly, and death results. The poem champions speaking and listening over seeing.
Language and Communication

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A POISON TREE LIES AND

DECEIT QUOTES
See more famous quotes from poetry

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1
How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles. (7-8)
The rhyme on "smiles" and "wiles" emphasizes the speaker's deception; "smiles" are supposed to indicate happiness, or pleasure, or
friendshipin short, any number of positive things. The fact that "smiles" is paired with "wiles" illustrates the lack of any genuine emotion on
the speaker's part.
Lies and Deceit
Quote #2

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine. (9-11)
The apple is deceptively "bright" and "shiny." We know it is poisonous and that nothing good can come from it. The poem suggests that
anger can make things appear to be what they are not. In a sense, anger releases a silent killer, something that is in reality incredibly
dangerous, not the least because it is so alluring.
Lies and Deceit
Quote #3

And into my garden stole

When the night had veiled the pole; (13-14)
It appears the "foe" is deceitful as well, as he sneaks into the speaker's garden at night. Of course, for his part, the foe is deceived by the
allure of the apple. Deception seems to infect, and affect, everyone in the poem.
Lies and Deceit

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A POISON TREE QUESTIONS

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Bring on the tough stuff - theres not just one right answer.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Why do you think Blake chose an apple rather than, say, a pomegranate, or an orange, or a kumquat?
Would you teach Blake's poem to your children in order to teach them about anger? Why or why not?
Why does the enemy want to eat the speaker's apple? Why is it so attractive?
Who is to blame for the enemy's death (if you agree that he's died in the poem)?

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