03/26/2020

Explication of “A Poison Tree” by William Blake

The poem “A Poison Tree” was published by an American poet/painter William Blake in

1794. He addresses the consequence and impact of unexpressed anger in this four stanza poem.

The speaker uses a tree as the metaphor of anger. Anger grows as long as it is nurtured just like a

tree.

In the first stanza, the speaker describes difference between his wrath, not just anger but

strong vengeful anger toward a friend and an enemy. When he released his emotions by

communicating with his friend, the uneasiness faded as the second line indicates, “I told my

wrath, my wrath did end.” On the other hand, his anger seemed to grow even greater when he did

not address it to his enemy as the fourth line indicates, “I told it not, my wrath did grow”. He is

able to cope with his issue with the friend in a healthy manner, he is able to forgive and find

peace within himself. But his unexpressed hatred towards the enemy grows gradually and the

negative energy breaks him eventually.

In the second stanza, he describes how he nurtured his anger with fears and tears and how

he pretended smiles with soft deceitful wiles. The word wiles mean a trick, artifice, or stratagem

meant to fool, trap in Greek. We can see the sense of his willingness to revenge from this stanza.

Although he does not use much imagery in this poem, it is easy to imagine him in pain and

suffering from his own emotion.

In the third stanza, the anger grows so toxically every day and night like a bright apple.

An apple is associated with poison and evil in stories like Adam and Eve and Sleeping Beauty. In

the title of the poem, “A Poison Tree”, the poison represents the apple he has created with his
willingness for revenge and the tree simply represents his wrath. His enemy sees the shiny apple

and recognizes that it belongs to the speaker. It becomes a weapon that destroys the enemy.

In the last stanza, the enemy sneaks into speaker’s garden at night, as he stated in line

thirteen and fourteen, “And into my garden stole, When the night had veild the pole”. And the

next morning, the speaker is glad to see his enemy lying dead under his tree. As the conclusion

of the poem, his anger ends up harming the enemy.

We all experience many anger and negative relationships with others throughout our

lives, and some of us manage it by communicating while others prefer to keep it to themselves. I

held strong hatred toward my own father for a decade which destroyed my heart and childhood

because I chose not to practice the healthy anger management approach. I find the second stanza

very relatable where the poet describes the growing emotion as the following; “And I watered it

in fears, Night & morning with my tears: And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful

wiles.” Bitter feelings become a significant part of us when we choose to keep them instead of

letting them go and moving forward. This poem describes the negative consequences of

unexpressed anger like a tree that grows and grows every day and night to a point it destroys

oneself or others.