A POISON TREE

- By William Blake
-
Poem Text Lines:
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 & 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.
Stanza 1 Explanation:
The poet is not only expressing his anger towards his friend as well
as his foe in this stanza, but he has also depicted the difference between the
two types of anger. He states that when you are angry with a friend, you
convince your heart to forgive him. Even though you are hurt and you
know that he did injustice to you, you try your best to forget the past and
end the feeling of vengeance in your heart.

On the other hand, when you are angry with an enemy, it takes ages for
you to calm your anger. Yet, the anger and the feeling of vengeance do not
diminish, even with time. In fact, the vengeance simply grows.

Stanza 2 Explanation:

The poet is making a confession in this stanza of 'A Poison Tree' – it

is he, who is solely responsible for the hatred that has grown in his heart
for his enemy. It is he, who has increased the vengeance in his heart. He
has nurtured the hatred with his fears, spending hours together, crying for
the ill that has been caused to him by his enemy.

He has also nurtured the hatred with his sarcastic smiles, imagining ill and
cursing his enemy to go through the same or worse sufferings that he has
been through.

Stanza 3 Explanation:

The poet states that it is because of his dwelling in the same hatred,
that it has grown every day. The hatred gave birth to an apple. The fruit
signifies the evil that has taken birth in the heart of the poet. He states that
he has now come to a point from where he can't turn back and forget about
his enemy until he does something to soothe his vengeance.

Finally, the day comes when the poet's enemy has met the evil fruit of
vengeance, and he has grown with his fears, tears, and sarcasm. The fruit
has now turned into a weapon. When the enemy confronts this anger, it is
time for the weapon to serve the purpose that it has been made for.
Stanza 4 Explanation:

And, so the poet states, the very next morning, the purpose is served.
When the poet wakes up and glimpses the garden, he sees something that
relaxes his mind and calms his vengeance forever. The darkness of the
night acted as an invisible cloak for the poet. Now, it is a beautiful
morning.

There he is; his enemy, dead under the tree of his hatred. He bit the
poisoned apple of his vengeance. He is murdered.

Introduction:
"A Poison Tree" is a poem by English poet William Blake, first
published in his Songs of Experience in 1794. In deceptively simple language
with an almost nursery-rhyme quality, the speaker of the poem details two
different approaches to anger. In the first, openly talking about anger is
presented as a way of moving past it. In the second, the speaker outlines the
danger of keeping anger within. The poem uses an extended metaphor to
describe the speaker's anger as growing into a tree that bears poisonous
apples. The speaker's enemy then eats an apple from the tree and dies. The
poem is generally interpreted as an allegory for the danger of bottling up
emotions, and how doing so leads to a cycle of negativity and even violence.
Theme:
Major themes of the poem, A Poison Tree, are anger, hatred, and
revenge. The poem explores the disastrous effects of unexpressed anger
that causes to grow hatred. Blake as a visionary writer, dives deep into the
darker side of human mind and tries to explain the harm that anger can do.
He also explains in the start of the poem that it is quite easy to forgive
someone before start of growing of hatred but when it starts to grow, its
outcome is drastic.
Summary:
In ‘A Poison Tree’ William Blake describes how to handle anger both
with a friend and an enemy. The poet has given the readers a very valuable
lesson how to handle conflict. Blake also helps the readers by clearly
explaining the ill effects of holding malice inside oneself.
 The first stanza speaks about two types of anger. One that was against a
friend and one against an enemy. When the anger was against a friend, he
took pain to explain his feelings and so the conflict was resolved. The anger
ended. The other was against his enemy. He did not like him. He held the
anger inside and did not express it. He also did not try to express it to others
and find a solution. Resentment began to grow inside.

The second stanza talks about the anger which grew as a poison tree.
The poet cultivated his anger, watered his budding tree with fear and tears
every day and night. The enemy did not know of this growing fury.
Deceptively the poet employed his smiles as though it was sun to this toxic
tree.

With charm he cleverly did not allow interjection or awareness of his

wrath. Third stanza tells how he nurtured the tree. Anger poisoned the human
spirit, furthermore, it endangered the ability to use logical reasoning. Finally,
the tree bore the fruit of fury in the form of a beautiful, appealing apple. The
enemy of the poet planned to stealthily eat the fruit of the tree.

In the final stanza, the enemy was lured by the fruit of that poison tree.
Without the knowledge of the poet, the enemy ate the fruit of fury and was
found dead the next day under the tree. The poet does not seem to worry
about the loss. Blake uses the poem as a warning to those who harbor grudges
and allow the feelings of resentment to stay inside without dealing with them.
Expressing the feelings is the only Way to avoid the fruit of poison tree.