William Blake was born on 28th November 1757.

He was not only an

English poet, but a visionary of his time, as well. He was also an excellent

painter and print maker. Art is what always attracted this poet. He

belonged to the era of the Romantic Age. Most of his poems depict

emotions and the consequences of the same. Although he was not very

much recognized during his time, he turned out to be posthumous. He had

always used his imagination to express the innermost emotions of the

human race. Since he was, most of the times, in his own world of art , he

was considered mad during his time.

The poem A Poison Tree is one of the most wonderful and appreciated

works of William Blake. It was published in the year 1794 in his

collection of Songs Of Experience, which talks about various emotions of

humans. A Poison Tree forces you to look deep down inside your own self.

It makes you ask a question to yourself – you often forgive your friends;

would you ever forgive an enemy?

A Poison Tree is an important part of “Songs Of Experience”, which was a

follow up to William Blake’s Songs Of Innocence, published in the year

1789. Both the books were later brought together and published under the

title of Songs Of Innocence And Experience, Showing The Two Contrary

States Of The Human Soul: The Author And Printer, W.Blake. Although

Blake focused on the hidden emotions of humans, his works did not get

much of fame all his life.

A Poison Tree was individually published in the London University

Magazine, in the year 1830. Although the original title of the poem was

Christian Forbearance, the name was later changed to give a better idea of
what the poem was all about. The poem has four sets of rhyming couplets.

Each stanza remains continued to the next, and give the poem a hurried,

almost furtive tone that matches the secretive deeds carried out in the

darkness of the poem ’s content.

A Poison Tree Structure

A Poison Tree has four different stanzas. It starts as a first person poem,

where the poet is expressing his anger and hatred towards his enemy. The

poem then takes a turn and ‘I’ is replaced with the word ‘It’, a pronoun to

depict the feelings of the enemy.

The poet has used a metaphoric style. For instance, apple depicts his

vengeance; tree depicts his loss of patience, underneath which he kills his

enemy, etc. Besides, Blake also makes use of end-rhyme to really drive

the message home. As in the first, second, third and fourth line of the

poem’s first para, you can see ‘friend ’ and ‘end’, both at the end of their

respective lines, rhyme, and likewise does ‘foe’ and ‘grow’.

A Poison Tree Poetic Form

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 poet is not only expressing his anger towards his friend as well as his

foe in this stanza, but he has also depicted the difference between two

types of anger. He states that when you are angry with a friend, you

convince your heart to forgive him . Even though you are hurt and you
know that he did injustice to you, you try your best to forget the past and

end the feeling of vengeance in your heart.

On the other hand, when you are angry with an enemy, it takes ages for

you to calm your anger. Yet, the anger and the feeling of vengeance do

not diminish, even with time. In fact, the vengeance simply grows.

And I watered it in fears,

Night & morning with my tears:

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles.

The poet is making a confession in this stanza – it is he, who is solely

responsible for the hatred that has grown in his heart for his enemy. It is

he, who has increased the vengeance in his heart. He has nurtured the

hatred with his fears, spending hours together, crying for the ill that has

been caused to him by his enemy.

He has also nurtured the hatred with his sarcastic smiles, imagining ill

and cursing his enemy to go through the same or worse sufferings that he

has been through.

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.

The poet states that it is because of his dwelling in the same hatred, that it

has grown every day . The hatred gave birth to an apple. The fruit signifies

the evil that has taken birth in the heart of the poet. He states that he has

now come to a point from where he can ’t turn back and forget about his

enemy, until he does something to soothe his vengeance.

Finally, the day comes when the poet’s enemy has met the evil fruit of

vengeance, that he has grown with his fears, tears and sarcasm. The fruit

has now turned into a weapon. When the enemy confronts with this anger,

it is time for the weapon to serve the purpose that it has been made for.

And into my garden stole.

When the night had veiled the pole;

In the morning glad I see,

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

And, so the poet states, the very next morning, the purpose is served.

When the poet wakes up and glimpses in the garden, he sees something

that relaxes his mind and calms his vengeance forever. The darkness of

the night acted like an invisible cloak for the poet. Now, it is a beautiful

morning.

There he is; his enemy, dead under the tree of his hatred. He bit the

poisoned apple of his vengeance . He is murdered.

Personal Commentary

Anger is one of the most aggressive emotions that we all possess as

humans. And why only humans, this emotion is possessed by all the living
beings; even the animals are seen fighting with rage and anger on the

streets and in the woods.

In this poem, the poet has clearly stated about his anger and feeling of

vengeance in his heart. He has forgiven his friend, but he hasn’t and will

never forgive his enemy for the wrongs that he has done and the hurt he

has caused to him . He remembers every little thing that he has wrongly

done to put him down and hurt him terribly.

The poet clearly says that he has himself not forgiven his enemy, even

though he could. He has made sure that he doesn’t forget all the wrongs

that he has been done, because he has suffered enough due to his foe. At

first, he may have tried to forget about all that has been caused to him, but

with the growing time, the hatred in his heart developed and he kept

dwelling in the same vengeance.

Finally, the feeling of anger has shaped up and now he can do anything to

make his enemy suffer and pay for his Karmas. However, the poet does

not even wish to wait for the justice of Karmas; he wishes to put an end to

his vengeance by murdering his enemy on his own; and so he does. He

kills or murders his enemy in the end and gets back, his peace of mind.

Thus, Blake’s portrayal of an angry, bitter, wrathful, and cold

atmosphere, and his use of symbolism, metaphors, diction, all show the

deep level of seriousness rampant in the poem.