AGrando - A Poison Tree

A Poison Tree is a poem written by William Blake.

The poem consists in four stanzas, each including one quatrain and various stylistic devices. Blake works with a simple rhyme scheme (A,A,B,B) that keeps the poem flowing.

In the first quatrain William compares how he deals with his feelings of anger towards his friends versus his foe. When he expressed his wrath to his companion, his anger and poison tree withered away easily due to the fact that he was able convey his ability to express his feelings openly. However, when he buried his wrath away from his enemy, it grew .

As for the second quatrain, he describes how his anger is mounting by comparing it to a small poisonous plant that is budding and growing very rapidly. This is what happens when feelings are repressed  not expressed. The plant is watered with “fears” and “tears”. This  The stanza includes a few stylistic devices and some of them are rhymes and metaphors. An example of a metaphors, is “I water it with fears”. Just like a plant is watered to grow, his wrath is watered with tears and fears.

The tale poem continues in quatrain number three, where the poet's anger increases to the extent that the poisonous tree produces bright and shiny apples. With regards to the last quatrain, the author  poet begins to speed up the climax when the foe passed into the speaker's garden, and was tempted by the apples shiny appearance. When the poet says, My foe outstretched beneath the tree he either means that the foe has consumed the poison while pleasing the speaker, or that the foe is just lying underneath the tree and has realized his opponents' anger. This poem teaches a moral lesson of great value. He It metaphorically describes how anger can be dismissed by kindness or nourished to become a deadly poison.