A Poison Tree Interpretation
The poem A Poison Tree is about a person narrating in a poetic way
his experience of how he managed with wrath. William Blake describes
wrath as an object which he represent in various symbols. At the same way
he uses similes and contrast to show how anger grows and poisons a person
heart and character.
In the first stanza there is a contrast between a friend and an enemy.
Here Blake’s presents himself managing with anger toward a friend and later
on with a foe. He shows how he can control anger when he is dealing with a
friend. As the stanza says (line 1 & 2) he was angry with someone he
considers a friend and he told that anger ness and it disappear. In contrast
he was angry with someone he considers an enemy and he didn’t tell his
anger and it grew.
In the second stanza there is a simile with a plant. The author creates
this plant in representation of wrath. It says that it watered it in tears and
with fear. Blake uses fear with the purpose of create confusion of to what
fear he refers to. “Fear from what? Could it be the fear from Blake’s foe?
Or could it be fear that fruit from the tree could be stolen? ”
() His fear are about what could grow
from that plant that he day and night watered with his tears and with
enthusiasm. Blake’s fear and wrath could produce a poison tree which can
poisons his heart and affect his enemy.
In the third stanza there is a simile between The Garden of Eden and
the poison tree. The element that represents this is an apple. Blake uses it as
a representation of anger. Like as the Garden of Eden the apple represents
poison, perdition and temptation. The simile is very clear because in both
cases the apple was stole,this apple which brought darkness and pain. In
the poem it brings pain to Blake which got stole and in the Garden of Eden
to humanity that was punish by God. Blake also punishes himself in the
poem for not telling his foe the anger that he fells.
Poison tree is a sea plant that opens at night and the flowers usually
are found beneath the tree. As the poem says that at night his foe stole what
it grew and in the morning he was beneath the tree. William Blake made a
clear comparison with the tree and the poem. In some way with this he tells
us to stop with violence.
Myrna Nieves Crispin