A Poison Tree

📝 Poem: A Poison Tree

Poet: William Blake
Published: 1794 (in Songs of Experience)

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🌟 Central Theme

• The poem explores the danger of suppressed anger.

• It shows how hiding negative feelings like anger can grow into hatred, and eventually cause harm.

• Blake warns that when emotions are not shared or resolved, they can become poisonous.

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🧠 Explanation (Stanza by Stanza)

Stanza 1:

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 speaker says when he was angry with a friend, he expressed it, and the anger went away.

• But when he was angry with an enemy (foe), he hid it, and the anger grew stronger.

Stanza 2:

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 fed his anger like a plant—watering it with fears and tears.

• He gave it sunlight with fake smiles and tricky words (deceit).

• His hidden hatred is growing like a tree.

Stanza 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,

• The anger-tree grows day and night until it produces a shiny, tempting apple.

• The speaker’s enemy sees the apple and knows it belongs to the speaker, but still wants it.

Stanza 4:

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

• The enemy sneaks into the speaker’s garden at night to take the apple.

• In the morning, the speaker finds his enemy dead under the tree—suggesting the apple was poisonous.

• This shows how hatred and deceit can destroy others.

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🔤 Form and Structure

• The poem has 4 stanzas with 4 lines each (quatrains).

• Simple, regular form mirrors the clarity of the message.

• The structure builds like a story—starting with a feeling, showing growth, and ending with the result.

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🔠 Rhyme Scheme

• The rhyme scheme is AABB in each stanza.

  • Example (Stanza 1): friend / end / foe / grow

• This makes the poem easy to read, almost like a moral lesson or fable.

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🎵 Meter (Rhythm)

• The poem is written in trochaic tetrameter:

  • A trochee is a foot with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one (DA-dum).

  • Tetrameter means 4 feet per line (8 syllables total).

  • Example:
    "I was AN / gry WITH / my FRIEND"
    → DA-dum DA-dum DA-dum DA-dum

Effect of the meter:

• The rhythm feels strong and steady, like a heartbeat or march, adding power to the message.

• It also gives the poem a child-like, simple sound, which contrasts with the dark, serious meaning.

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✨ Poetic Devices

1. Metaphor

   • The growing tree is a metaphor for growing anger and hatred.

   • The apple represents the result of hidden anger—something deadly that looks beautiful.

2. Symbolism

   • Tree = anger that grows over time.

   • Apple = temptation, revenge, or destruction (like the apple in the Garden of Eden).

   • Garden = the mind or heart of the speaker.

3. Alliteration

   • Repetition of consonant sounds:

     • "sunned it with smiles"

   • Adds musical quality and emphasizes ideas.

4. Repetition

   • Words like “wrath” and “my” are repeated for emphasis.

   • Shows how personal and intense the speaker’s emotions are.

5. Irony

   • The speaker seems “glad” at his enemy’s death.

   • This shows moral irony—we expect poems to teach kindness, but this one warns by showing cruel results.

6. Personification

   • The tree is described as if it’s growing emotions like a real person.

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💬 Tone and Mood

• Tone: Calm, controlled, but also dark and bitter.

• Mood: Starts quietly emotional, becomes creepy and deadly by the end.

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📚 Themes

• Suppressed Anger: Hiding anger makes it worse.

• Revenge and Deceit: Hatred can lead to secret plans and even death.

• Human Emotions: Shows the danger of not sharing feelings.

• Moral Warning: A lesson about emotional honesty and its importance.

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📌 Summary

• A Poison Tree is a powerful poem that warns against hiding anger and letting it grow.

• Through simple words and a strong metaphor, Blake shows how secret hate can lead to destruction.

• The poem is written in a clear structure and rhythm, making it feel like a dark moral tale.

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