Consist of analysis of 'A Poison Tree' by William Blake, especially on its musical devices and metaphor.

1. MUSICAL
DEVICES AND
METAPHOR IN
“A POISON
TREE” BY
WILLIAM
BLAKE
Ulfaturroifah

2. Abstract
This paper is written to analyze “A Poison Tree” by William Blake. The purpose of
this writing is to analyze the musical devices and metaphor of the poetry. The
writer uses musical devices and metaphor theories and close reading as the
method. The writer found that the poetry is dominated by musical devices which
can be found on every line. In conclusion, the musical devices and the metaphor
describes the content of the poetry itself.
Keywords : William Blake, musical devices, metaphor

3. Introduction
Poetry is one of genres in literature. The definition of poetry comes from Laurence
Perrine in “Sounds and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry” (1969:3) which defines
poetry as a kind of language that says more and says it more intensely than does
ordinary language. Another definition comes from Edwin Arlington Robinson as
cited in “A Handbook to Literature” (1960:366). He says poetry as a language that
tells us, through a more or less emotional reaction, something that cannot be said.
All poetry, great or small, does this.

4. Purpose and Scope of The Study
A. The purposes of this study are:
1. To understand the using of musical devices in the poetry.
2. To understand the using of metaphor in the poetry.
B. Scope of The Study
The scope of this study is the analysis of musical devices and metaphor in poetry
entitled “A Poison Tree” by William Blake.

5. The Poet and The Poem
1. The Biography of William Blake
William Blake was a Romantic Period poet and he was born in London in 1757. His only formal education was in art: at
the age of 10 he entered a drawing school, and later studied for a time at the school of the Royal Academy of Arts. At
14 he was apprenticed for seven years to a well-known engraver, James Basire, read widely in his free time, and begin
to try his hand at poetry. The person who introduced Blake to poetry was Robert Hartley Cormek. He offers Blake a
commission for ilustration to Robert Blair’s The Grave. From this beginning, Blake began to make his own poems. His
first book of poem, Poetical Sketches, was printed when he was 26 years old. The second book, The Song of
Innocence, wrote in 1789, and the third was The Song of Experience, published in 1794. William Blake died when he
was 70 years old. At the time of his death Blake was but little known as an artist, and almost entirely unknown as a
poet.

6. 2. “A Poison Tree” by William Blake
A Poison Tree
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 waterd it in fears,
Night and 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 veild the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

7. Discussion
1. Musical Devices
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
William Blake uses a repetition for the sound ─end in friend and end. This pattern seems frequently
used in the whole lines.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
Blake uses the same pattern he used in the first two lines in stanza 1. There is a repetition of vocal
sound u in foe and grow.

8. And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
There is a repetition of the s sound in those four lines. There is also a repetition of the s sound in
the beginning of sunned and smiles. This is called alliteration. The rhyme and these repeated sounds
combine to create a kind of sonic play in this poetry, one that makes it fun to hear or read out load,
like a typical kids’ poetry.
Another musical devices in this poetry is anaphora. Anaphora happens when lines are repeated in
the same way again and again. It can be seen in the using of and in line 1, 3 and 4 in stanza 2. This
repetition seems to emphasize the poetry and lends a sort of urgency to it.

9. The same repetition pattern and rhyme is used in 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.
William Blake uses the repetition of –ight sound in night and bright in stanza 3, and the repetition of
–ine sound in shine and mine. Not only alliteration of b sound in the beginning of bore and bright,
anaphora again is used in this stanza.

10. And into my garden stole,
When the night had veild the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
In this last stanza, William Blake makes the repetition of sound in stole and pole, see and tree.

11. 2. Metaphor
I told it not, my wrath did grow
William Blake says his wrath grows because he didn’t anything about it. Wrath or anger doesn’t
literally grow, so it is a metaphor for the process of anger getting greater.
And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
Fears and tears are actually metaphor for how Blake keeping his wrath and watching it grows
greater. He keeps it while also keeps negativities that come from the wrath itself.

12. And I sunned it with smiles,
Because the wrath isn’t a plant that can actually grow, sunn[ing] here is a metaphor for the things
Blake do to make the anger grow.
Till it bore an apple bright.
After keeping and doing things to make it grow, the anger then bears an apple. It is a metaphor for
the end of one’s potent rage (in this case, a poisonous fruit that can kill a man).

13. And into my garden stole,
William Blake tells us that his foe “stole” into his garden. The garden in this poetry, where Blake
grows and waterd his wrath, is a metaphor for the place in our mind where we let our anger fester,
grow, develop, and become essentially destructive.
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
The tree here is a metaphor for dangerous consequences of festering anger. It is where the anger
grows, and the one that finally lies on Blake’s foe.

14. Conclusion
From the poetry “A Poison Tree”, William Blake tells us how he made a mistake by
keeping his anger and let his foe died. It is actually about how he killed his enemy.
Blake, through this poetry, shares his experience and hopes that people will not do
the same mistake as he did.
His purpose of using metaphor and beautiful musical devices is to hide how
actually scary this poetry is. However, at the end, this poetry reach his aim on how
to give lesson to people to behave.