A Poison Tree
William Blake
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, and 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 soft, deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night
Till it bore and 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.
I really liked this poem! It makes the reader visualize a spectacular analogy between an apple tree and a grudge...and, to be honest, I love poems that rhyme, they sound so much more smooth if the rhymes aren't forced!
The second and third stanza is about a man who could not let go of his hatred, or grudge, that he held it in until it grew so deep his enemy could see. This poem, in a way, reminded me of Hamlet's plot to avenge his father. Hamlet thought about his hatred so much, that in the end, it consumed his whole life.
The third stanza explains how the author is so absorbed with his grudge, that he lets his enemy "win" because he put so much emotion and energy into his hatred.
The apple tree analogy shows this wonderfully.
Th rhyme scheme makes the poem flow well and it goes AABB for each stanza. There are four stanzas in the poem.
I also did this poem in a blog, but my perspective was a little different. The apple made me think of a kind of "forbidden fruit" or Snow White poison apple allusion, and in the end where it says, "In the morning glad I see/
ReplyDeleteMy foe outstretched beneath the tree," I thought he had eaten the apple from the hatred tree and died, and that actually the guy with the grudge won, but did a lot more harm to his foe than originally intended. I think either interpretation is valid though; the poem focuses more on the growth of the hatred rather than it's consequences.
Both interesting perspectives. Nice work, ladies!
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