A Poison Tree

By William Blake

William Blake (1757-1827) was an English poet, painter, and visionary, whose work combines profound spiritual themes with intense, often mystical imagery. Blake’s unique style blends poetry and visual art, making him a pioneer figure in Romantic literature and art. His work, though underappreciated in his lifetime, is now celebrated for its originality and depth. The poem was written by William Blake and it was first published in his ‘Songs of Experience’ in 1794. The language of the poem is very simple and easy. The speaker presents two approaches to anger. The first approach is giving an outlet to your anger and telling the person with whom you are angry. The second approach is to keep the anger within and feed it. The poem is an allegory for the dangers of bottling up emotions and how it begins a cycle of negativity.

Text of the Poem

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 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 veild the pole;

In the morning glad I see;

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Summary

The speaker says that he was angry with his friend. He told his friend about his anger and his anger subsided. On the other hand, when the speaker is furious with his enemy, he keeps quiet. His anger increased with time.

The speaker nourished this anger with his fears and tears both day and night. The speaker’s smiles and other gentle deceptions used to hide this anger only resulted in feeding that anger further.

The anger grew into a tree and bore a bright apple. The enemy of the speaker saw this bright apple and he knew it belonged to the speaker.

The enemy crept into the speaker’s garden in the darkness of the night. The next morning, the speaker became very happy to see his enemy lying dead beneath the apple tree.