William Blake’s “A Poison Tree”

William Blake’s “A Poison Tree” 

    William Blake’s “A Poison Tree” makes a powerful statement about how the poet felt 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, instead of using the power of communication to resolve conflicts.

“A Poison Tree” is organized into four quatrains. The rhyme scheme is AABB; meaning that the first two lines of each quatrain rhyme as do the second two lines. This rhyme scheme creates a very simple and easy to follow flow for the poem.


The poem is told from the point of view of an ambiguous narrator. Withholding the identity and all personal details of the speaker, makes readers able to place themselves into the poem.

The first quatrain explains that the narrator at one time became angry with a friend. However, this conflict was resolved because the narrator told the friend and the “wrath did end.” The second half of the quatrain brings up another conflict, but this anger is with a foe. This time the narrator “told it not” and the “wrath did grow.”

The second quatrain is very powerful and starts with the line, “and I watered it in fear.” Blake is telling the reader that fear and anger go together. One can assume that the fear of the speaker is unfounded as there has been no mention of threat from the foe. Fear can force people to think and do things that are highly out of character. This emotion can take one to a dark place, as it does with the speaker. Next in the quatrain, the narrator mentions that the wrath is feed with tears. The mention of tears associated with the speaker’s fears leads one to believe that this emotion is unwanted. But then the next line, “And I sunned it with smiles,” leads ones to think that the speaker may be enjoying watching the wrath grow. The longer the speaker is allowed to contain the anger, the more of a emotion poison it becomes.

The third quatrain tells how the wrath grows into the poison tree. Blake chose this metaphor because wrath is a poison that tants a person’s emotions and powers to reason. The poison tree produces “an apple bright.” The foe sees the fruit of the poison tree and knows the apple belongs to the speaker. For this reason, the foe covets the apple.

The fourth and final quatrain reveals the end result of the foe sneaking into the speaker’s “garden” to take the apple from the poison tree. In the end, the apple, the fruit of speaker’s wrath, takes the life of the foe. The speaker is victorious over the foe but at a high cost. Blake says that the speaker is “glad” to see the foe “outstretched beneath the tree.” These last lines have a sense of unease. No matter what the anger-poisoned speaker may believe, this is not a victory.

“A Poison Tree” is Blake’s warning to the reader about what unchecked anger can do. Such an emotion can become poison to people's minds if allowed to grow. Communication and releasing such emotions before they fester is the safest path to resolve conflict.


source---helium.com

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