Poison Tree Analaysis

In 1794 William Blake was roughly 27 years of age when he wrote the well known poem ‘A poison tree’. ‘Poison tree’ is a perfect metaphor for human nature and anger as a tree grows slowly. This memorable poem tells the story of how anger with one’s friend can be resolved although anger with one’s enemy can only take a turn for the worse.
This poem contains four stanza’s, stanza one shows the poet’s description of how a person was angry with his friend but decided to encounter his friend and then his ‘wrath did end’. The poet then describes how the same person was angry with his adversary but decided not to confront his foe and therefore his ‘wrath did grow’. The poet uses repetition of words like ‘angry’ to emphasise the difference between friend and foe.
In stanza two the poet uses many metaphors which describe the growth of the poison tree which reflect growing hate. ‘And I watered it in fears’ shows how the speaker (the person whose point of view the poem was written from) explains the way in which he allowed his anger to build inside himself. By watering ‘it’ with fears he keeps adding to his misery, the ‘it’ in this line refers to his wrath. The next line ‘Night and morning with my tears’ again elaborates on the way he allowed his anger to flourish throughout the days. The poet then finishes the stanza by writing ‘And I sunned it with smiles, and with soft deceitful wiles’ meaning, he never revealed to his enemy that he was angry with him as he always bore a smile upon his face and therefore very sneakily he was luring his enemy into a trap.   ‘Deceitful wiles’ meaning misleading sly tricks are used to lure his enemy into a sense of false security.
The following stanza reads ‘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’, This stanza shows the way that his enemy is being leaded into a dangerous trap which may lead to disastrous results. The anger of the speaker is still developing...