This document provides an analysis of imagery and metaphor in William Blake's poem "A Poison Tree". It begins with an abstract that explains the purpose is to understand the usage of imagery and metaphor through close reading. It then provides background on Blake and an overview of the poem. The discussion section analyzes key imagery like the growing tree and bright apple. It also examines the metaphors used to represent the growth of anger. The conclusion is that Blake uses metaphor and imagery to show how anger can grow and lead to destruction if not expressed.
2. Abstract
In this writing, the writer tries to analyze an intrinsic elements of poem
entitled “A Poison Tree” by William Blake. The purpose of this writing is to
understand the using of imagery and metaphor in the poem. The writer uses
the theories of imagery and metaphor with close reading method. From this
analyze, it can be found that the metaphor in the poem shows about anger
and hatred. In conclusion, the uses of imagery and metaphor can help us to
understand the poem.
Keywords: Imagery, Metaphor, Anger, Hatred
3. Introduction
Poetry is as universal as language and almost as ancient. The most primitive
people have used it and the most civilized have cultivated it. In all ages and in
all countries poetry has been written and eagerly read or listened to by all
kinds of people. The intelligent and the sensitive individual appreciate it
greatly and it has appealed, in its simpler forms, to the uneducated and to
children. In Laurence Perrine in “Sounds and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry”
(1969:3) poetry defines as a kind of language that says more and says it more
intensely than does ordinary language. Poetry must be directed at the whole
person, not just at our understanding. It must involve not only our
intelligence but also your senses, emotions, and imagination.
4. The Biography of William Blake
William Blake was born in Soho, London, where he lived most of his
life, and was son to a hosier and his wife, both Dissenters. Blake's
early ambitions lay not with poetry but with painting. It nonetheless
afforded him friendships with John Flaxman and Henry Fuseli,
academics whose work may have influenced him. In 1789, he
published his Songs of Innocence, the gentlest of his lyrics, but the
collection was followed by Songs of Experience, containing a
profound expression of adult corruption and repression. His vision of
civilization as inevitably chaotic and contradictory mirrors the political
turmoil of his era. It is only in retrospect that we can begin to
appreciate his work and unravel its complex and allusive sources.
5. A Poison Trees
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 watered 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 veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
6. Discussion
1. Imagery
And I water’d it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
(Stanza 2)
The imagery can be seen in the second stanza. How he's describing how he "tended" to his wrath
at this point takes the shape of a plant...that you water and have to give it the right amount of
sun. The "tears" and "fears", "Smiles" and "wiles" are all metaphorical references to not only caring
for a plant but also but how to keep the anger in a person from dying out. You can see the
speaker caring for the tree.
7. 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,
(Stanza 3)
In the stanza 3, he show us the "idea" of a plant as his wrath, actually turns into a physical tree with an apple. The
apple here is often compared to the apple in Eden that Eve saw. And like Eve, the enemy see's this lone apple on
tree and Blake makes a point of highlighting that the speaker saw the enemy "see" the apple and eat it.
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.
(Stanza 4, line 3 and 4)
And in the last stanza the "foe" then hops the fence, gets the poisonous apple and dies. Blake, interestingly left the
last line as the death of the enemy without having the narrator learn anything from it or feel any sort of guilt or
shame. But the way it's written you can almost feel that the narrator is glad he killed him.
8. 2. Metaphor
In William Blake's poem "A Poison Tree" he uses a lot of metaphor to deliver a message. His
language demonstrates a connection between how one can allow one's anger to grow by not
expressing the emotions responsible for the anger.
And I watered it in fears
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
(Stanza 2, line 1-4)
William Blake uses a metaphor to compares the speaker's anger to a growing plant. "And I watered
in fears," the speaker helps the tree to grow by watering it in his tears of his own anger. "And I
sunned it with smiles, and with soft deceitful wiles." This show us how the author grows his anger,
the tree by falsely smiling and doing deceitful tricks to deceive his enemy into thinking he's not
angry.
9. And it grew both day and night, (stanza 3, line 1)
This is a metaphor for the speaker's anger becoming greater and greater by using “grew both day and
night,” It is not possible for anger to grow literally but in the speaker's mind it is so.
Till it bore an apple bright. (Stanza 3, line 2)
This line show us “apple” is a metaphor for the end result of one's anger. That the speaker has dealt with
wrath for a long time now. His wrath has become so great that it was able to grow a miraculous tree. From
this tree grown out of anger, fear, and tears, an apple is produced.
And into my garden stole, (stanza 4, line 1)
This sentence shows the “garden” is a metaphor for the place where the speaker's anger developed. This
garden is not pure and filled with flowers. It is toxic and filled with hate.
When the night had veiled the pole (stanza 4, line 2)
In this line “Veiled the pole” is a metaphor for the night concealing all light; which enables the foe to
successfully steal the apple.
10. Conclusion
In William Blake's poem "A Poison Tree" he uses a lot of metaphors and
figurative language to deliver a message. His language demonstrates a
connection between how one can allow one's anger to grow by not
expressing the emotions responsible for the anger. It also shows how one's
anger can lead a very destructive path, in this case the death of a foe. Morality
is seen in this poem. One can either transform his anger into something good
or bad.
