A Poison Tree - William Blake

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 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 veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

William Blake

In the poem'A Poison Tree' William Blake wants to say that holding a resentment can be dangerous for yourself as well as for the object of the anger. He wants to warn us that keeping quiet about our anger only stop our personal growth and that a resentment left unchecked can be very dangerous.

In the first stanza Blake tries to explain that we must not bottle up our anger.

The second stanza shows the careful treatment of someone for his inner anger, as he treats it like a plant. In this stanza William Blake introduces the plant as a metaphor for the anger, which is inseparable from the rest of the poem. His anger becomes a living creature, that he 'waters' and 'suns'.

In the last stanzas William Blake personifies his anger as the apple. At the end he expresses his anger and so the apple has grown on the tree, the foe sees the apple and is beaten by it's beauty. I think that the thought behind this is that if you express your anger it will defeat your foe.

The poem is about bottling up your anger and about defeating your foe by expressing your anger. I can relate very well to this poem because I sometimes feel like I'm bottling up my feelings and my anger. I know it's good to express your anger, but I don't want to hurt anyone. This poem made me realize that by expressing your anger, you can defeat your foe. So if I'm mad or even angry at someone, I must talk with them. Then they will probably understand me and then we can make it up.

The poem made me feel very sad in the beginning, because I knew I could relate to it, but I didn't know what to do with my anger. But at the end, when I knew what William Blake was trying to tell me, I felt relieved, because I had finally found a way to deal with my anger and my feelings.