A POISON TREE BY WILLIAM BLAKE FROM MISS NATRA

LITERATURE FORM 5: ‘A POISON TREE’ POEM BY WILLIAM BLAKE

A POISON TREE

I was angry with my friend; Word Power:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end. a) wrath= extreme anger
b) foe= enemy
I was angry with my foe: c) watered= pour water
I told it not, my wrath did grow. on plants
d) sunned= provide
And I watered it in fears, sunshine
Night & morning with my tears: e) deceitful= dishonest
behaviour to make
And I sunned it with smiles, people believe things
And with soft deceitful wiles. which are not true
f) wiles= clever tricks a
And it grew both day and night. person uses to get what
Till it bore an apple bright. he/she wants
And my foe beheld it shine, g) bore= produces fruit
h) beheld= looked at or
And he knew that it was mine. saw
i) veiled= covered with
And into my garden stole, something to hide
When the night had veiled the pole; something partly or
completely
In the morning glad I see; j) pole= the Pole star
My foe outstretched beneath the tree. which is the star that is
above the North Pole in
the sky (also known as
Polaris)

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A GIFT FOR MY BELOVED STUDENTS MISS NATRA @SMKPJI 2020

LITERATURE FORM 5: ‘A POISON TREE’ POEM BY WILLIAM BLAKE

THE MEANING OF EACH STANZA Literal meaning
The persona is angry with his friend but
Stanza 1 (line 1-4) when he tells about his anger towards his
friend; the feeling goes away. Then, the
Line Stanza 1 persona feels angry to his enemy. He does
1 I was angry with my friend; not tell about his feeling to his enemy. The
2 I told my wrath, my wrath did end. feeling of anger grows inside of him.
3 I was angry with my foe:
4 I told it not, my wrath did grow.

Stanza 2 (line 1-4) Literal meaning
Line Stanza 2 The persona keeps his anger inside of him
1 And watered it in fears, and it grows bigger. He treats the feeling
2 Night and morning with my tears; like a plant. The persona starts to plan his
3 And I sunned it with smiles, wicked scheme towards his enemy. He
4 And with soft deceitful wiles. grows the ‘anger-plant’ by ‘watered’ it with
his ‘fears’, ‘tears’ and acts nicely to his
Stanza 3 (line 1-4) enemy with ‘smiles’ and tricks to fool the
Line Stanza 3 enemy.
1 And it grew both day and night
2 Till it bore an apple bright; Literal meaning
3 And my foe beheld it shine, The persona’s ‘anger-plant’ grows day by
4 And he knew that it was mine, day. Then, the plant bears ‘an apple’. The
enemy is tempted to pick the apple as it
Stanza 4 (line 1-4) looks so delicious. The enemy knows that
Line Stanza 3 the apple belongs to the persona but he
1 And into my garden stole does not care; and determines to take it
2 When the night had veiled the pole: for himself.
3 In the morning glad I see
4 My foe outstretched beneath the tree. Literal meaning
The enemy sneaks into the persona’s
garden at night when it was very dark. He
steals the ‘apple’ and eats it. The next
morning, the persona feels so happy and
contented when he sees his enemy lying
dead under his tree in the garden.

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A GIFT FOR MY BELOVED STUDENTS MISS NATRA @SMKPJI 2020

LITERATURE FORM 5: ‘A POISON TREE’ POEM BY WILLIAM BLAKE

A) SYNOPSIS

The poem is a descriptive and straightforward poem about human emotions and their
consequences. The poem illustrates the key of emotion: anger and the consequences of being angry with
someone. It also explains that anger becomes deadly and devious if it is not expressed honestly. Besides,
the poem also explores the idea of hatred as the poet expressed his anger towards his friend; and the
feeling vanishes soon after he expresses it. When he chose to be silent about his feelings (anger, hatred,
annoyance) towards his enemy; the feelings grew like an anger-plant. He feeds the seed of his “plant”
with anger and hatred. Outwardly, the persona is smiling and friendly to his foe so that he will trust and
be close to the persona. He is scheming to trick and trap his foe. His increasing anger and hatred grows
into a poison tree. The poison is actually the persona’s wrath and hatred for his foe.

Then, the persona becomes spiteful, revengeful and murderous as his anger and hatred
intensify. He plots to kill his foe and his devious plan words when his poison tree bears a deadly poison
apple. The persona’s foe sees the apple and is tempted to eat it. One dark night, his enemy sneaks into
his garden to steal his poison apple. Then, he eats it and dies. The next morning, the persona is happy to
see him lying dead under his poison tree.

B) ABOUT THE POEM

The poet, William Blake is an English poet, an excellent painter and print maker. This poem
is one of his poem collection of Songs of Experience published in 1794. The poem makes you think
poem and question yourself because you would often forgive your friends, but would you forgive
your enemies?

The poem is a quatrain which is written in 4 line stanzas. It had 4 sets of rhyming couplets. The
poem is written in a first person point of view. Each line begins with ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘mine’ suggesting the
speaker’s obsession with himself.

C) THEMES D) SETTING E) TONE & MOOD F) LANGUAGE & STYLE

Hatred. In the Tone: Anger, bitterness and Quatrain (stanza with 4
Anger. persona’s maliciousness. The persona is lines each)
Revenge. garden; under extremely angry with his foe. As his Rhyme scheme: AA BB.
the poison anger intensifies, he becomes Rhyming couplet: same
tree. scheming and murderous. In Stanza meter & joined by rhyme
In the 4, the tone is accusing as the (Stanza 1; line 1 & 2)
darkness of persona accuses his foe stealing his Trochee: two types of
the night, the apple. syllables. The first is
next morning. Mood: Revenge. We can see that stressed & the second is
the persona’s hate towards his unstressed (e.g.:
enemy, ended up killing him but ‘I told my wrath; my wrath
when he is angry with his friend, the did end’
emotion goes away.
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A GIFT FOR MY BELOVED STUDENTS MISS NATRA @SMKPJI 2020

LITERATURE FORM 5: ‘A POISON TREE’ POEM BY WILLIAM BLAKE

G) MORAL VALUES & MESSAGES
The importance of communicating when there is a misunderstanding and to resolve them
We should not harbour ill feelings against someone
We must forgive and forget
Bottling up ill feelings is bad for us and those around us

H) LITERARY DEVICES

Antithesis The poet uses antithesis in the opening line by telling a
friend about anger and it vanishes. The next two lines show
(refers to the juxtaposition of opposing or the opposite act about hiding his anger from the enemy,
contrasting ideas) and it grows.

Alliteration -The sound of /w/ in ‘ I told my wrath, my wrath did end’.

(the repetition of the same consonant -‘Garden’, ‘apple’, ‘tree’ are the illusions of Adam, Eve and
sound in the same line) the Garden of Eden.

Allusion - And it grew both day and night (seeing the tree grows
slowly day by day)
(a belief and an indirect reference of a -Till it bore an apple bright (a fruit grows from a tree)
person, place, thing, idea of a historical, -My foe outstretched beneath the tree (his enemy lying
cultural, political or literary significance) unconscious or dead under the tree)

Imagery

(using words to create vivid images to
readers)

Metaphors - ‘A Poison Tree’ (a person full of negative emotions)
- A growing apple tree (telling the growing anger and it
(indirectly comparing 2 things that aren’t
alike but do have something in common) shows how destructive anger can be)
- Till it bore an apple bright (the fruit of his grudge)

Symbolism -The ‘apple’ represents anger. The apple grows large till it
ripens. Similarly, anger grows till it becomes vengeance.
(to signifies ideas and qualities, giving -The ‘tree’ symbolises his wrath and anger.
them symbolic meaning) -the ‘garden’ symbolises the heart where the hatred is
nurtured.
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A GIFT FOR MY BELOVED STUDENTS MISS NATRA @SMKPJI 2020