Prepared by Teacher Yoges

ANALYSIS OF A POISON TREE SPM 2020

ANALYSIS OF POEM FORM 5

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 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 veil’d the pole; 
In the morning glad I see; 
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

MAIN IDEA OF THE POEM

It is about anger and its destruction if it is not managed or communicated accordingly. The writer
has pointed out the consequences of the anger if it is pent up. Moreover, the poem suggests
that having a negative emotion impacts one’s life.

If you have noticed, the writer William Blake has used the word I, my, mine extensively in the
poem to point out that anger is a personal action, not the society’s.

MEANING OF EACH STANZAS

Stanza 1 The persona was upset with his friend, then

he told his friend about what angered him.
After a while, the anger diminished.
Now the persona is angry with his enemy but
this time he kept it bottled up inside. The
anger started to grow.

Stanza 2 As the anger began to grow in his heart and

mind, the persona was troubled. It saddened
him greatly every day. Nevertheless, he
covered up his anguish with a smiling face.
Stanza 3 Day by day the anger became greater, it is
metaphorically shown as the poison apple. An
apple that is shiny and red on the outside but
it already toxic in the inside.
His enemy was taken by the beauty of the
fruit and they both were intoxicated with
anger. Do note that the persona’s anger is far
 Prepared by Teacher Yoges
ANALYSIS OF A POISON TREE SPM 2020

greater than his enemy.

Stanza 4 This stanza shows the destruction of untold
anger. The conflict between the two remained
unresolved.
The last two lines of this stanza reflects as
though the persona had pleasure in seeing
his enemy falling into his trap.

Vocabulary list and meaning

Wrath Anger
Foe Enemy
Deceitful dishonest
Wiles lies
Veil’d the pole Covered the Northern star

Literary devices

metaphor
shown how anger can grow bigger day by day
the poison tree is used to show the negative emotion can become poison

Personification
waters the wrath with fear

Imagery
used in second stanza

Alliteration
sunned and smiled, bore and bright

Repetition
I was angry...

Allusion
the garden and the apple tree alludes to Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit (biblical
reference)