Give a summary of the poem "The Poison Tree"

by William Blake.
A Poison Tree
BY WILLIAM BLAKE
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 & 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 veild the pole;
In the morning glad I see;

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Homework Help > A Poison Tree

Asked on May 29, 2012 at 10:36 AM by fly-bird
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carol-davis | College Teacher | (Level 1) Educator Emeritus

Posted on October 18, 2012 at 12:07 AM
The Poison Tree by William Blake provides a clear lesson on how to handle anger both with a
friend and enemy. The narration is first person point of view with a nameless speaker.
The poetic form has four quatrains with a set rhyme scheme: AABB. This means that each
quatrain has two couplets. This rhyme scheme creates a simple and easy way to follow the flow
of the poem. It makes a powerful statement about how conflict should be handled. In his poem,
Blake warns about the ill effects of holding malice inside oneself. The poem is a metaphor for
what happens when one allows anger to grow within.
The first quatrain describes a friend getting angry at his friend. Because the speaker knew and
liked this person, he explained his feelings and the conflict was resolved. The anger ended. On
the other hand, the speaker clashed with a person that he did not like. He held that irritation
inside and did not express or tell the other person what was wrong. That resentment began to
grow inside the speaker.
The second quatrain begins the extended metaphor with the comparison of the anger and the
poison tree. Initiating the idea of the narrator cultivating his rage, he waters the budding tree
with fear and tears every day and even the night. Still, the enemy does not know of this growing
fury. Fear can make a person act out of character and lose his emotional balance. Deceptively,
the speaker employs his smiles as though it was the application of the sun to this toxic tree. With
charm, he allows no interjection or awareness of his wrath.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
The third quatrain nurtures the tree/ire metaphor. Anger poisons the human spirit;
furthermore, it endangers the ability to use logical reasoning. Finally, this tree bears the fruit of

the narrators fury in the form of a beautiful, appealing apple as in the Biblical forbidden fruit.
The enemy desires the apple and realizes that it belongs to the speaker.
The final quatrain brings the anger to an end; however, the narrator has lost his humanity. He
now is glad that the enemy is dead. The fruit of his antagonism [the poison apple] lured the
enemy into the garden; he ate the apple; and now the foe has been eradicated. The last couplet
indicates that the narrator finds comfort in the death of the other man.
Blake uses the poem as a warning to those who harbor grudges and allow the feelings of
resentment to stay inside without dealing with them. Communication becomes the only way to
avoid the fruit of the poison tree.

What is the theme of the poem "A Poison Tree"?

Homework Help > A Poison Tree
Asked on March 3, 2010 at 6:18 AM by needhelpconfused
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mstultz72 | High School Teacher | (Level 1) Educator Emeritus

Posted on March 3, 2010 at 7:01 AM
The theme of William Blake's "The Poison Tree" looks deceptively simple (anger), but it's not.
Rather, the theme lies in how suppressing one's anger can actually make it grow more than it
was before. Blake presents a Old Testament-esque Christian allegory, similar to the Garden of
Eden story, to indirectly reveal his themes of forbearance, self-restraint, and moderation.
The original title of the poem in his anthology Songs of Experience was "Christian Forbearance."
Speaking from experience himself, Blake says that secretly hiding angry feelings from others
will only let them fester until they destroy both parties. So says Enotes:
The principal theme of "A Poison Tree" is not anger itself but how the suppression of anger leads
to the cultivation of anger. Burying anger rather than exposing it and acknowledging it,
according to "A Poison Tree," turns anger into a seed that will germinate. Through the cultivation
of that seed, which is nourished by the energy of the angry person, wrath grows into a mighty
and destructive force.
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kmcappello | (Level 1) Assistant Educator

Posted on March 3, 2010 at 6:55 AM
William Blake's allegorical poem, "A Poison Tree," is concerned with the subject of anger. The
speaker of the poem reveals to his friend that he is angry, and the anger dissipates. But when the
speaker hides his anger from his enemy, the anger grows, much like a tree. The fact that the tree
is "poison" tells us that, by ignoring or suppressing anger, we are also poisoned. The apple that
appears on the tree of anger symbolizes that poisonous effect. The final line is ominous; the
speaker's delight at the "foe outstretched beneath the tree" offers a warning about what happens
when we suppress our anger. If we ignore or deny our feelings, we will become wicked, bitter,
and even vengeful.
Here is a video representation of the poem:
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chinxx | Student, Undergraduate | (Level 1) eNoter

Posted on August 14, 2011 at 6:19 PM
'A Poison Tree' is a symbolic title as it explains the truth of human nature. It is a metaphoric
poem as the poet creates a picture in our minds of how anger hidden in our minds can grow to
become a poison tree. The poet describes that a feeling of anger can disappear if there is
goodwill and friendship but if there is distrust n enmity, it grows and causes great distruction.
When one is angry with a friend, and we communicate that anger, it automatically disappears
because of love and friendship. But when one is angry with an enemy, it continues to grow
because it is not expressed

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.

STANZA 1 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this poem line-byline.
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.

STANZA 2 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this poem line-byline.
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 superdeceitful 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?

STANZA 3 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this poem line-byline.
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

STANZA 4 SUMMARY

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Get out the microscope, because were going through this poem line-byline.
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?

A POISON TREE ANALYSIS

Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay

Form and Meter

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...

Speaker
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...

Setting
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...

Sound Check
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 rememb...

What's Up With the Title?

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...

Calling Card
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...

Tough-o-Meter
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...

Trivia
Many people thought Blake was a lunatic. One of the most famous poets of the day
Robert Southey (whom nobody cares about anymore)referred to him as a man of
"great but undoubtedly insane geniu...

Steaminess Rating
"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...

Allusions
Book of Genesis (Title; 9-11)