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.

The Summary of the Poem

The speaker is presenting two scenarios here. In the first, he
(we're assuming it's a he) is in a tiff with his friend, a spat if
you will. But wait! There's no need to fret. He told his friend
about his anger and guess what? His anger went away.
Presto! Ah, the power of communication.
Scenario #2: We get the same basic set-up here. The
speaker's mad again, but this time he's mad at his enemy. Will
he follow the same route? You bet your bippy he won't. He
keeps mum about his anger for his enemy and, well, that
anger just grows. The speaker's anger is only heightened by
his fears, and his continued deception about his true feelings.
Then, in an odd, metaphorical twist, the speaker's anger
blossoms into an apple. Yum! At least the speaker's enemy
thinks so. One night, he sneaks into the speaker's garden
(presumably for a delicious apple snack), but it doesn't work
out so well for him. The next morning, the speaker is happy to
see that his foe lying dead under the tree that bore the
(apparently poison) apple. Not good.

Analysis of the poem

Lines 1-2
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

As the poem opens, the speaker describes how he was

angry with his friend. Bad times.

Still, he told his friend he was angry ("I told my wrath"), and
presumably why he was angry, and his anger disappeared.

overwhelming? We're guessing that this is what's going

on for the speaker here.

Lines 5-8
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

Happy days are here again!

Lines 3-4
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

The speaker describes a different scenario, now. He

was once angry with his "foe" (a.k.a. his enemy), but
didn't tell him about it.
Since the speaker did not talk about his anger ("I told it
not"), his anger got bigger and bigger ("my wrath did
grow").
You know how, when you keep something bottled up
inside, it tends to make that feeling more intense and

The speaker talks more about how his anger grows.

Using figurative language, he treats this anger very
much like a plant. A plant needs water and sun in order
to grow, and so apparently does his anger.
He watered it with his "fears" and his "tears" and made
sure it got plenty of sunshine.

Now, we know that the speaker didn't give his angerplant real sunshine. Instead, he gave it "smiles" and
"deceitful wiles." These are more like "fake" sunshine.

They help the plant to growlike real sunshine would

for a real plant..

A wile is a "crafty, cunning, or deceitful trick." "Deceitful

wiles," then, are super-deceitful tricks (or really, really
cunning traps). The speaker suggests that he is
a very deceptive person and that he is planning

something very sinister and mischievous. Whatever it

is, though, his anger seems to dig it, since those
deceitful schemes are like sunshine to it.

Lines 13-16

A growing plant is usually a good, positive thing,

a symbol of life. It seems ironic that a growing plant is
being compared to a growing anger. Is anger a good
thing in the world of this poem?

And into my garden stole

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

Lines 9-12
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,

Because of the speaker's efforts, his plant (anger)

eventually bears ("bore") fruit: an "apple bright." Yum!
Wait, is this apple a good thing?
The speaker's enemy sure thinks so. The enemy sees
the fruit of the speaker's wrath, and somehow he's able
to recognize that it belongs to the speaker. It's not clear
how, though.
Let's read on to see if that's explained later in the
poem

Aha! The enemy has seen this anger-apple in the

speaker's garden. So, it's safe to say that's how he
knows it is the speaker's.
That doesn't stop the enemy from trying to steal it,
though. After he has seen the apple, the "foe" sneaks
into the speaker's garden at night.

The word "stole" is a past tense of the verb "steal,"

which in this context means something like "sneak in
secretly." This word also suggests "steal" (like a thief
steals). It seems that the speaker is blaming his foe, or
calling him a thief.

This happens when it's super-dark out. In the phrase

"night had veiled the pole," pole refers to the top of the
earth, as in the "north pole," but it can also mean the
pole star, also known as the North star, also known as
Polaris. It's an important star for navigation, since it's
bright and it stays pretty much fixed in the sky. Tonight,

though, the night has "veiled" it, covered it up. This star,
used in navigating folks safely through danger, is not
visible. Uh-oh!

To suggest that the night (an abstract time) could

actually cover up the star (like a person might) is to
use personification.

Apparently, at some point in the super-dark night, the

enemy eats the apple, which ends up killing him or
making him fall asleep. It's not clear which, although
the speaker is glad to see him laid out in the garden.
We're going to go with death for the enemy here, since
the speaker would likely not be too happy if his enemy
both ate his apple and used his garden like a cheap
hotel.

Still, the word "glad" is a bit ambiguous here (it could

have more than one meaning). "Glad" could refer to the
morning, as in "the morning is glad," or it can refer to
the speaker's feelings when he sees his "foe" lying
"beneath the tree."

Either way, it seems like bad times for the enemy, good
times for the speaker. Or is it?

A Poison Tree Themes

1. Anger

"A Poison Tree" is a poem about anger, and, more importantly,

some of the destructive consequences that can result when
we cultivate our anger, rather than try a more productive outlet
for this potentially dangerous emotion (like stamp collecting!).
The fact that Blake refers to anger as "wrath" suggests that
the poem is about a more serious type of anger, a vengeful or
spiteful feeling of biblical magnitude ("wrath" is commonly
used in the Bible to refer to the anger of Old Testament God).
In other words, this is seriously powerful stuff that must be
carefully guarded against.

Questions About Anger

1. We know from the poem that anger is bad (mkay?). But
does the poem offer any advice about how to deal with
people who make us angry, upset, frustrated, etc.? If
so, what? If not, why not?
2. How does the speaker feel about his anger? Does he
regret it in the end? How do you know?

3. How does the sing-songy rhyme scheme of this poem

impact the way you understand the speaker's anger?

How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #1

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end. (1-2)
The rhyme between "friend" and "end" suggests that,
perhaps, it is much easier for anger to "end" when it comes to
friends, rather than enemies. Perhaps friendship is necessary
before anger can finally subside.
Anger
Quote #2

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow. (3-4)
If the rhymes in the first two lines emphasize the connection
between the end of wrath and friendship, lines 3-4 emphasize
just the opposite. The word "foe" rhymes with "grow," which
suggests that having enemies, or even perceiving someone
as your foe, is the source from which destructive anger
springs.
Anger

Quote #3

And I watered it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles (5-8).
The repetition of "and" three times in this stanza suggests
how things like anger and "fears," "tears," and "soft deceitful
wiles" are connected. The list-like effect of the word "and"
implies that all these things are on equal footing with one
another, connected in a chain of negativity.

2. Language and communication

In the first stanza of "A Poison Tree," the speaker says, "I told
my wrath, my wrath did end" (2) and "I told it not, my wrath did
grow" (4). The poem suggests that talking about emotions is
an important part of dealing with them. It also suggests that
not talking about our emotions, instead harboring and
cultivating them, will lead to poisonous "fruit"the poem's
metaphor for the dire consequences of anger that's not dealt
with properly. Trust usthat is one bad apple. The good news
is, though, that we can avoid the speaker's grim fate. We've
just got to get the bad stuff off our chest on a regular basis.

Questions About Language and

Communication

appear sandwiched (this figure is called chiasmus) between "I

told" and "did end" in such a way that suggests talking is a
way of containing anger and making it go away.

1. Why might the speaker discuss his anger with his

friend but not his "foe"?
2. How does the enemy recognize that the anger-apple is
the speaker's, if there is no communication
happening?

Quote #2

3. Might the speaker have communicated his anger to the

speaker in ways that weren't necessarily expressed in
speech (i.e., non-verbal communication)? How would
we know if he did?

The repetition of "and" three times in this stanza illustrates

how closely linked the development of anger and a lack of
communication are. It is as if the poem is saying "I didn't
speak about my anger and then x happened and then y
happened and then z happened."

4. Is it possible to keep negative emotions bottled up and

not become unhappy and miserable?

How we cite our quotes: (Line)

And I watered it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles. (5-8)

Quote #3

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end. (1-2)

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 (9-12)

The poem's first two lines show how anger can be literally
contained or curbed: by talking about it! They enact this theme
formally as well. In line 2, the words "my wrath, my wrath"

Neither the speaker nor the "foe" speak to each other. The
communication here is entirely non-verbal, and it leads to
tragic consequences (for the enemy, at least). The speaker

Quote #1

and his foe employ other senses and physical gestures (in this
stanza it's sight; in the previous stanza it's tears, fears, and
smiles), rather than communicating directly, and death results.
The poem champions speaking and listening over seeing.
3.

4. Does the speaker attempt to deceive the reader at any

point in the poem? If so, when?

Lies and Deceit

"A Poison Tree" is all about lies and deception. The speaker
suns his anger with "soft deceitful wiles," and this anger
eventually produces an apple that is deceptively bright and
shiny (deceptively because the apple turns out to be
poisonous, not made of wax). The speaker isn't the only guilty
party, however. In the last stanza, the "foe" "steals" into the
garden, presumably in order to steal the apple whose bright,
shiny peel must be irresistible. Anger isn't just anger all by
itself, then. The poem suggests that its good buddies lies and
deceit also accompany it.

How we cite our quotes: (Line)

Quote #1

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles. (7-8)
The rhyme on "smiles" and "wiles" emphasizes the speaker's
deception; "smiles" are supposed to indicate happiness, or
pleasure, or friendshipin short, any number of positive
things. The fact that "smiles" is paired with "wiles" illustrates
the lack of any genuine emotion on the speaker's part.

Questions About Lies and Deceit

1. Whom do you see as the victim in this poem? Do you
sympathize more with the speaker (who is deceitful) or
the speaker's "foe" (who steals the apple)?
2. How are anger and deceit related to each other in this
poem?
3. How does the speaker deceive himself in the poem?

Quote #2

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine. (9-11)
The apple is deceptively "bright" and "shiny." We know it is
poisonous and that nothing good can come from it. The poem
suggests that anger can make things appear to be what they

are not. In a sense, anger releases a silent killer, something

that is in reality incredibly dangerous, not the least because it
is so alluring.

Quote #3

And into my garden stole

When the night had veiled the pole; (13-14)
It appears the "foe" is deceitful as well, as he sneaks into the
speaker's garden at night. Of course, for his part, the foe is
deceived by the allure of the apple. Deception seems to infect,
and affect, everyone in the poem.

Study Questions
Bring on the tough stuff - theres not just
one right answer.
1. Why do you think Blake chose an apple rather than,
say, a pomegranate, or an orange, or a kumquat?
2. Would you teach Blake's poem to your children in order
to teach them about anger? Why or why not?
3. Why does the enemy want to eat the speaker's apple?
Why is it so attractive?

4. Who is to blame for the enemy's death (if you agree

that he's died in the poem)?

http://www.shmoop.com/poison-tree