William Blake (1757 – 1827) is one of the renowned poets who lived during the end of the 18th century and the start of the 19th. His poems mainly deal with themes like religion, the plight of the downtrodden and poverty. They use deceptively simple language, but if one delves deeper into their layers, their imagery is often complex and structured.
‘A Poison Tree’ is a poem written by William Blake in his ‘Songs of Experience’ in 1794. He writes about two varied experiences to illustrate how dangerous it is to suppress anger.
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
The poet uses simple language to describe how he was once angry with his friend, but he spoke to him about his wrath. Once he had spoken, he felt lighter and his wrath ended.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both night and day.
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On the other hand, the poet was not as open with his enemy, and he did not let his anger out to him. Instead, he allowed it to grow within his heart, watering it with tears, and sunning it with false smiles.
The rancour grew, causing a chain reaction which could have been avoided if they had just spoken about their issues. Instead of the wrath dying down, the poison tree grew every day and night till it produced a bright apple, beautiful to behold.
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.
The poet's enemy witnessed the sheen of the apple, and he knew it belonged to his enemy. He sneaked into the latter's garden at a time when darkness had hidden the Pole Star. The poet did not need to say what exactly happened.
In the morning the poet was happy to see his enemy, stretched out beneath the tree, cold and lifeless. This proves that he had allowed his anger to consume him completely to the extent that he rejoiced when his enemy lay dead.
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The growth of the poison tree is an extended metaphor for the anger that grows in the poet's heart. The speaker and his foe can be seen as allegorical representations that reveal how emotions like anger can lead to hatred and violence, which lifts this poem to levels beyond the two protagonists.
There is an allusion to the tree in the garden of Eden where Eve offers Adam the forbidden apple, which finds an echo in Blake's poison tree. The first two lines of the poem refer to the stage of innocence when God created Man and Woman and gifted them the beautiful idyllic garden. However, the remaining lines talk about the poison tree which may allude to the state of Man after his Biblical fall when Adam and Eve are cast out for their sin.
The shiny red apple has been used to much effect in the fairy tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, where her evil stepmother used it to poison her stepdaughter. Luckily, things worked out when she received love's first kiss. But then, that's a fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after.
There are myriad classics in Literature where anger has propelled the action in the narratives - Lord of the Flies by William Golding, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, Look Back in Anger by John Osborne, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and some of Shakespeare's most popular plays like Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, to name just a few.
This post is a part of the Blogchatter Half Marathon 2023.
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