A Poison Tree

William Blake

About the author

William Blake (1757 – 1827) was an English Poet, painter and print maker. Blake
is now considered a seminal figure in the history of English poetry.He was born
in London. He was a boldly imaginative rebel in both his thought and his art.
Some of his famous poems are “The Lamb” and “The Tiger”.

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 and 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.

-William Blake

Glossary

wrath (n.) - anger

foe (n.) - enemy

deceitful (adj.) - cunning, treacherous

wiles (n.) - tricks

veiled (v.) – covered

A Poison Tree Textual Questions

A. Answer the following questions in a sentence or two.

1. I was angry with my friend
I told my wrath ‘my wrath did end.

Question (a).
Who does ‘I’ refer to?
Answer:
‘I’ refers to the poet, William Blake.

Question (b).
How did the anger of poet come to an end?
Answer:
The poet told the reason of his anger to his friend. The anger came to an
end.
Additional:

Question (c).
Write a synonym for ‘wrath’.
Answer:
A synonym for ‘wrath’ is ‘anger’.

2. And I watered it in fears

Night and morning with my tears;

Question (a).
What does ‘it’ refer to?
Answer:
‘It’ refers to anger.

Question (b).
How is ‘it’ watered?
Answer:
It is watered with fears and tears and tears of the poet.

3. In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretched beneath the tree

Question (a).
How did the poet feel in the morning?
Answer:
He felt glad in the morning.

Question (b).
Who is the ‘foe’ referred to here?
Answer:
The person on whom the poet is angry with.

Question (c).
Why was the ‘foe’ found lying outstretched beneath the tree?
Answer:
The ‘foe’ ate the apple from the poison tree of anger. So he fell below the
tree.
4. And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright

Question (a).
Who does ‘it’ refer to?
Answer:
It refers to anger, that is personified to the ‘poison tree’.

Question (b).
What does ‘apple’ signify?
Answer:
Apple indicates anger.

Question (c).
What grew both day and night?
Answer:
Anger that is personified to the ‘poison tree’ grew both day and night.

B. Complete the summary by filling in the given spaces with suitable

words.
Once the poet was angry with his friend. He expressed his
_________(i)__________ and it ended. They became friendly but when he
grew angry with his foe, he ________(ii)________it and allowed his anger
to grow. Day and night he watered it with his tears allowing it to grow. He
____(iii)______ his foe with false smiles and cunning tricks. The tree kept
growing and yielded a bright apple which _______(iv)______ his foe to
eating it stealthily during the night. The next morning the poet was happy
to see his foe lying ______(v)______ under the tree.
Answers:
(i) anger
(ii) suppressed
(iii) faced
(iv) attracted
(v) outstretched

C. Answer the following questions in about 80-100 words.

Question 1.
How did the poet’s anger with his friend end?
Answer:
Poem: A poison tree
Author: Ruskin Bond
Character: Poet, his friend, and enemy, tree
Theme : Enmity dies hard

In the opening lines, the poet describes how he was angry with his friend.
He told his friend that he was angry and assumably why he was angry.
Due to some bad times, he might have been angry. But as they were
friends already, the poet could have a love for his friend. So he could
approach his friend.

He was in a good state of mind. He could feel free to speak to his friend
openly. Thus there wasn’t much difficulty to tell his friend about his anger.
The moment he told his wrath to his friend, all displeasure disappeared.
Love embraced both of them.
“Love one another”

Question 2.
Describe how his anger kept growing?
Answer:
The poet confessed that when he was angry with his enemy, he did not
reveal his anger to his enemy. He feared that if he expressed his anger to
him, his enemy would do harm to him. So he suppressed his anger. Day
and night he shed tears thinking about the ill or the injustice that had been
caused by his enemy to him. Thus, he watered the tree of anger with his
tears, allowing the anger to grow. He also aroused his anger with his false
smiles and cunning tricks towards his enemy. Since the poet kept his anger
within himself and had his own fear and tears, his anger kept growing
every day.

Question 3.
Describe the effect of the poisonous fruit on the enemy’.
Answer:
Poem: A poison tree
Author: Ruskin bond
Theme: Love your enemies too
Character: Poet, enemy, and tree
The scene begins with the poet and his enemy. The poet was angry with
his enemy. He had no mind to tell his enemy about his anger. The anger
was like a seed. He watered it and it grew well. It became a tree. He
sunned with his smile. The tree blossomed and brought forth fruit. It
attracted the enemy.

He chose the night to steal it and eat it. The next morning the enemy was
found lying dead. The anger kept on growing till the end. The poet grew
the poison tree with an aim to kill the enemy. The fruit proved its worth.
The enemy was killed. Tne poet became happy.
“Love forgives and covers all sins”

D. Poem Appreciation: Figures of speech.

Question.
Pick out at least two Instances of alliteration from the poem.
Answer:

1. I was angry with my foe.

2. Night and morning with my tears.
3. And I sunned it with smiles.
4. Till it bore an apple bright.
E. Read the following lines from the poem and answer the questions that
follow.
1. 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.

Question 1.
Pick out the rhyming words.
Answer:
friend – end; foe – grow

Question 2.
What is the rhyme scheme of the stanza?
Answer:
aabb
Question 3.
Identify the figure of speech in the title of the poem.
Answer:
Personification

2. And I watered it in fears

Night and morning with my tears;

Question 1.
What figure of speech is used in ‘watered it in fears’?
Answer:
Personification.

Additional Questions
1. And I sunned it with smiles And with soft deceitful wiles

(i) Explain the phrase deceitful wiles.

(ii) Identify the rhyming words
Answers:
(i) The poet deceived or fooled his enemy by his tricks.
(ii) rhyming words – smiles, wiles

2. And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright

(i) What does it mean?

(ii) Identify the rhyme scheme,
Answers:
(i) If refers to ‘A Poison Tree’.
(ii) rhyming scheme – a, a

3. In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

(i) Which scene makes the poet happy?

(ii) When does the poet see his enemy dead?
Answers:
(i) In the morning when he saw the enemy dead under the poison tree.
(ii) In the morning, the next day after the enemy consumed the apple.
Listening Activity:
F. Listen to the passage on ‘anger management’ and match the sentence
parts by drawing a line. The recording can be played more than once if
needed.
(For listening to the script refer to our website www.fullcircleeducation.in)

Answers:
1. (c), 2. (e), 3. (b), 4. (a), 5. (d).

G. Answer the following in about 80-100 words. Take ideas from the
poem and also use your own ideas.
1. Recall a recent situation when you became angry. What were the
consequences of your anger? After listening to the guidelines on anger
management, find out how well you could have handled the situation.
Write your findings.
Answer:
Anger is often viewed by the public as a feeling related to evil. However,
it is actually an innate feeling that every individual feels once in a while.
No one can escape this feeling. Even small children became angry from
time to time.

1. It is important to recognize when you feel angry.

2. Never try to suppress your anger but try to understand it.
3. When we sleep, the body and mind rest and rebuild damaged cells
and neural pathways.
4. Regular physical exercises can keep oneself fit.
2. What might have caused the conflict which led to the poet becoming
angry with his enemy? Think of one such situation that you have
experienced. Describe how you felt and how the enmity grew and things
became worse.
Answer:
For the poet, it must have been quite a personal life-changing issue like
lover, parents, cousins, etc., then professional conflict. When my father
was taken to hospital for jaundice, he was detected with pancreatic cancer.
At that time my elder sister who had always projected herself as a
decision-maker kept silent because of the fear of deadly disease. She did
not play her part well. I naturally became very angry with her and stopped
talking. When our father died, she did not play her role in the ceremonial
practices but brought a whole lot of her friends to be sympathised. I will
never forgive her. Anger has grown to a level where both families have
stopped talking to each other.

H. Discuss and Write.

(a) Identify five to six qualities which make an ordinary person, loved and
respected by all. Work in groups of five or six. Each group has to take up
one quality and discuss the methods for imbibing that quality’ and identify
the challenges that need to be faced.
Answer:
Six qualities that make an ordinary person, loved and respected by all are:

1. Friendliness and congeniality

2. Good personality
3. Deep knowledge
4. Effective communicator
5. Good listener
6. Sense of humour
7. Kindness
My group will now discuss the methods of imbibing the quality of
‘kindness’.
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”

(b) Adolescents are often distracted by feelings like anger, disappointment,

and general helplessness when they face challenges at school or at home.
Suggest a way to turn such feelings into positive ones.
Answer:
Adolescents face lots of challenges and stressful times. It is a period when
boundaries are tested, doors are slammed, and voices often raised. When
they express their frustrations in anger, that anger can be unsettling.
Disappointment and general helplessness stem from a teen’s desire to be
more independent from his/her parents and the frustration that he/she can’t
yet enjoy the freedoms of an adult.

That frustration is sometimes expressed as anger and striking out verbally

at parents. They will teeter between being engaged with the family and
wanting to retreat by themselves or with friends for several hours at a time.
Frustration is unrealized potential. Frustration drives ineffective leaders
backward, inward, and downward. To turn such negative traits into
positive ones, let us understand that we must respond and not react.
Remember the cockroach theory reiterated by Sundar Pichai, CEO,
Google.

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a

lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic-stricken face and
trembling voice, she started jumping with both her hands desperately
trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious as everyone
in her group started panicking. The lady finally managed to push the
cockroach away but… it landed on another lady in the group. Now it was
turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. The waiter
rushed forward to their rescue.

In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The
waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behaviour of the
cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with
his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant. Sipping my coffee and
watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few
thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their
histrionic behaviour? If so then why was the waiter not disturbed? He
handled it near to perfection without any chaos.

It is not the cockroach but the inability of those people to handle the
disturbance caused by the cockroach. Similarly, situations will make us
angry, but if we could stop, think and then respond, anger can be
controlled.

Additional Questions:

Question 1.
What is the consequence of anger? How is it explained in the poem ‘A
Poison Tree’ by Blake?
Answer:
A Poison Tree is a poem that focuses on the emotion of anger and the
consequences of it. It deals with the darker side of the human psyche. The
poet expressed his anger, everything was fine, but when he kept it inside, it
began to grow, eventually becoming a metaphorical tree with poison fruit.
The foe ends up under the tree, destroyed by the speaker’s pent up anger.
Poet advises the readers to express the anger rather than holding it to
themselves. Anger sustained damages both.

Question 2.
What motivated the poet to write on anger?
Answer:
William Blake wrote this poem in 1794 and it first appeared in his book
Songs of Experience. Society at that time was encouraged to bottle up
emotions and to present a polite and unruffled person to the world. Blake
thought this approach unhealthy and advocated a more expressive mode of
being, especially with regards to potentially festering emotion. His ideas
were against the prevailing attitudes of the church and state. The original
title Blake had for this poem, Christian Forbearance, reflects this.

Question 3.
Has the figure of speech been used effectively in the poem? Justify
Answer:
A Poison Tree uses metaphor, antithesis and biblical associations to
highlight the self-damage that can proceed from suppressing anger. The
emphasis is on letting go on negative emotions and moving on with life
before this energy impacts on the health and wellbeing of others.

The worth of the speaker becomes a metaphorical tree bearing a poison

apple. This allusion to the book of genesis chapter 3 is a clear one. The
tree of knowledge of good and evil is the poem’s tree. The serpent is the
speaker, both tempting and deceitful, Adam and Eve are the foe, both
guilty of disobedience.

The poem carries with it a potent message, anger management which is the
focal issue for many in society. Blakes’s prescient poem hits the nail on
the head with its antithetical argument for letting go of negative energy.
A Poison Tree by William Blake About The Poet:
William Blake was an English poet, painter and printmaker. His thoughts
and art were a depiction of his bold imagination. He is held in high regard
by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity and for the
philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. Notable works
of Blake are ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience’, ‘The Marriage of
heaven and Hell’, ‘The Four Zoas’, ‘Jerusalem’, etc.

In the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age, Blake is
considered as a seminal figure. Blake lived and worked in the teeming
metropolis of London at a time of great social and political change that
profoundly influenced his writing. Blake worked to bring about a change
both in the social order and in the minds of men.

A Poison Tree 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 harbour
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.

A Poison Tree Glossary:

deceitful – cunning, treacherous
foe – enemy
veiled – covered
wiles – tricks
wrath – anger
Points to Remember:
1. This poem tells the effects of suppressed feelings.
2. The poet is angry with his friend and he talks about it with
him. His anger ends.
3. The poet is angry with his enemy and he doesn’t express it. His
anger goes on growing..
4. Every time the poet thinks with fear or anguish about his
enemy, his anger grows. When he smiles in front of the enemy
afraid to show his anger and keeps plotting against him, his
anger grows all the more.
5. The anger grows to such an extent that the apple tree in the
poet’s garden gets affected. It bears bright apples, but ones
that are poisonous.
6. The enemy sees the apple, and knowing that it belongs to the
poet, deliberately comes at night and steals it.
7. The enemy dies upon eating the apple. The poet is ‘glad’ to
see this sight.

A Poison Tree by William Blake About the Author:

William Blake (1757-187) belonged to The Pre-Roman- tic period in
English Literature. Although he did not have formal schooling, he
became a mystic poet by his ability to see the world of God behind
the physical world surrounding us.

A Poison Tree Poem Summary in English

This is a very powerful, meaningful poem by William Blake. Here he

picturises the effects of suppressed anger. When the speaker in the
poem is angry with his friend, he expresses it and his anger
vanishes. But when he is angry with his enemy, he doesn’t express it
but suppresses it. He has various fears about the enemy, and these
fears ‘water’ the anger. His apprehensions about the enemy and the
consequent tears he sheds, too nurture the anger.

He ‘suns’ the anger, i.e., gives it light and heat to grow better, by
indulging in hypocritical behavior. He pretends to be friendly with
the enemy, and fools him about his own feelings with smiles and
soft deceitful wiles.

Here the poet brings in a concrete image of the anger. The hatred
that the speaker nurtures in his heart towards his enemy takes the
form of an apple tree. It bears a bright apple which tempt the
enemy to come at night and steal the apple.
However, since the tree had been nurtured by the speaker’s angry
mind, it has become a poison tree bearing poisonous fruits. Thus,
when the enemy eats the apple, he dies immediately. When the
speaker comes near the tree in the morning, he sees the enemy’s
body stretched out beneath the tree. He is ‘glad’ to see this sight.

Thus, the hatred that the speaker nurtures towards his enemy kills
the enemy indirectly by making even the apple tree poisonous,
These are the effects of evil thoughts.