Summary of A Poison Tree [Poem] by William Blake

William Blake: (1757-1827)

The writer of the poem ‘A Poison Tree‘ is a great poet, painter and engraver William Blake has written poems that have earned him the title ‘Prophetic poet’. His works were mostly philosophical in nature and the poem a poison tree can be taken as an example. Blake was greatly influenced by the Bible and it is reflected in his works as well. Blake was born in Soho, London. He left school at the age of ten and attended Henry Pars Drawing Academy for five years. As a child, he was greatly influenced by the works of Raphael, Michelangelo, Giulio, Romano and Dürer.

His famous works include ‘Europe’, ‘America’, ‘Visions of the Daughters of Albion’ and ‘The Book of Urizen’. He was aware of the social injustices of his time which drove him to write Songs of Experience in 1794. Before this, he had written songs of Innocence in which he views the world from the perspective of a child who finds joy in the beauty of nature. His poems had the recurring theme of good and evil, heaven and hell, and Knowledge and innocence which was of great inspiration for the romantic poets.

A Poison Tree Summary

A Poison Tree is taken from the collection of Blake’s poem titled Songs of Experience which was published in the year 1793. His works focus on the theme of human nature. In his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, he tries to bring a contrast between the innocence seen in a child and how this changes as the child matures and learns the ways of the world which brings with it the harsh reality known as experience. It is a very simple poem that speaks volumes about human nature, the habit of keeping anger in one’s mind and behaving in a good manner externally. The poem consists of four sets of rhyming couplets.

Blake can be called a mystic poet. He reveals in his poetry his soul’s relationship with God. He thinks deeply of man’s purpose on this earth. He tries to answer the question of why and from where man’s soul originated. His mysticism was a realisation of the present. ‘The kingdom of Heaven is with you such a realization is the object of Blake’s mysticism. This is the practical side of his mysticism. The poem highlights the need to let loose suffocating emotions like anger which if kept inside your mind keeps growing every day.

The poem A Poison Tree starts with the poet telling us how he expressed his anger to his friend and got rid of it. But when it came to his enemy he kept it within himself and it grew inside him to such an extent that he later had no control over it. Here he has used the metaphor of a tree to show how he watered his ‘wrath’ with ‘fears’ and ‘sunned it with smiles and ‘soft deceitful wiles’ letting it grow into a ‘poison tree’ as he calls it which bears fruit as well. This shiny fruit when consumed by the greedy enemy leads to his death. However, we can see that there is irony in the poem because although he says not to nurture the wrath of your enemy in the mind he seems to be glad in the end to see the death of his enemy.

Analysis of the Poem

Lines 1-8

The original title of the poem was “Christian Forbearance”. This title hints that the poem is against self-restraint. Blake believes that it is wrong to resist the natural impulses of man because restraint produces the apple of hate which destroys friendship and leads to a strained relationship. The speaker ended his hatred for his friend as he had given an outlet to his emotions. But when he had a problem with his enemy he did not express it and as a result, it accumulated.

Here too it would not have such intensity if he had expressed it to his enemy. Instead, the speaker caressed and nursed his emotions. He kept imagining that his enemy would do him harm and he lived in suffering. This increased his agony and watered his emotions of anger against the enemy. He then puts on a mask of friendship towards his enemy. He pretended to be good to him and smiled at him whenever he saw him. He was a hypocrite and gave his enemy the impression that he was a friend. But in reality, he was actually nurturing the feeling of hatred inside.

Lines 9-16

Blake, through this poem; a poison tree, tries to bring out his idea of the free expression of emotions. Blake was against the suppression of feelings and bringing about control of one’s behaviour which is necessary for our society. As part of the hypocrisy which is promoted in our society people refuse to freely express their feelings to a friend even when it is unpleasant. Hypocrisy teaches us to put up a smile on our faces and to go on nurturing anger inside.

According to Blake, this kind of falsehood, hypocrisy and selfishness replace sincerity, frankness and truthfulness in experience. The speaker’s feelings of anger and enmity went on growing inwardly but outwardly he put up a pleasant face. His anger finally bore fruit in the form of a bright apple. His enemy was greatly attracted to this apple and tried to steal this fruit from the speaker because he too had inwardly remained hostile to the speaker. The enemy slowly entered the garden of the speaker and stole the apple. He ate it without realizing the consequences.

The apple being poisonous leads to the death of the enemy. In the morning the speaker was happy to see the enemy lying dead under the tree. He had succeeded in his intention. The speaker’s fake friendship had tricked the enemy into believing that he was true at heart and had cheated the enemy. Feeling safe the enemy tried to cheat the speaker but he fell for the speaker’s trap and met with a disastrous end.