Analysis of the poem

1. A POISON TREE
By William Blake

2. William Blake
 28 November 1757 – 12
August 1827
 an English poet, painter
and printmaker
 Artist of Romantic Age
 Works received little
attention during his
lifetime

3.  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 water’d 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 veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see,
My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.

4. STANZA BY STANZA
ANALYSIS 1ST STANZA
 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 describes how he was angry with his
friend and told about his ‘wrath’ and his anger
disappeared.
 Then he was angry with his enemy, he didn’t tell
about his ‘wrath’ his anger started to grow inside
him.

5. 2nd stanza
• And I water’d it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
• He treats his anger very much like plant. He fed his anger with
‘tears’ and with FAKE ‘smiles’ which make his anger grow more
and more inside him.
• Deceitful wiles - deceitful tricks, traps. The speaker is planning a
trap to his enemy.

6. 3RD STANZA
 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 speaker’s anger increases to the extent and that Anger,
wrath ‘a poison tree’ which have been watered produces an
apple bright “a trap to his enemy”
 His enemy knows that apple belongs to the Speaker and for
this reason he wants to have it.

7. 4TH STANZA
 And into my garden stole.
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see,
My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.
 At night foe steals the apple from garden
 And in the morning the speaker is glad
 To see his foe outstretched beneath the
 Tree.

8. RHYME SCHEME
AA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH “END rhyme”
 Repetition
 “I was angry with my friend… I was angry with my
foe”
 Metaphor
 Poison tree – anger
 Apple bright – the product of repressed anger
 Allusion
 Reference from the Fall of the Garden Eden

9. MAIN THEME
 The suppression of ‘anger’ can lead to
extreme dangerous consequences. “A
PoisonTree” is a poem of vengeance and death.
 A gentle attitude is often a mask for anger.
Pretending to be friendly and when accepting one
is not.
 “And I sunned it with smiles,”
“And with soft deceitful wiles.”
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