Thesis 2:

The poems message is to put significance on working our problems out through words instead

of trying to mask them internally by either succumbing to the enemies demands or completely

disregarding the problem. The first lines of the poem acknowledge that we can easily overcome

our anger if we communicate our problems with each other. With that said, the speaker realizes

this with his friend but cannot do so with his enemy. It is unclear in the poem, but perhaps the

speaker wanted his enemy to die or maybe his enemy was too intimidating for him to approach.

The speaker describes how when he was angry with a friend, he talked to his friend to overcome

his anger:

I was angry with my friend; / I told my wrath, my wrath did end. 1-2

However, when the speaker is angry with his enemy, he was unable to do the same and this leads

to a developing resentment for his enemy and strong degree of hatred.

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

The speaker then demonstrates his anger through an extended metaphor of a tree growing within

the speakers garden. For example, in lines 5-8:

And I waterd it in fears, / Night & morning with my tears: / And I sunned it with smiles,

/ And with soft deceitful wiles.

He is watering the tree night and morning with his tears and fears with symbolize his growing

resentment. He also masks his hatred with smiles and deceitful wiles which in other words are

cunning traps.
The tree then grows throughout the day until it blossoms with a shiny apple that his enemy steals.

The speakers enemy recognizes that this apple is the speakers and so he eats the apple. The

speaker wakes up in the morning with a smile to find the body of his enemy dead and

outstretched beneath the tree.

Anger is a basic human emotion which sets the events of this poem in motion and the underlying

theme of the poem itself. Although anger itself is not necessarily wrong and can be cathartic at

times, how we deal with anger is what is most important. His anger is most evident in the first

stanza in which contrasts his two ways of dealing with anger and the two different outcomes that

come out of such approaches. One being a resolution, and the other being a manifestation of

hatred leading to an unfortunate consequence.

Deception is how the speaker bottles his anger up and does not talk about his feelings to his

enemy unlike his friend. The enemy then steals and eats the apple grown in the speakers garden

because of his deception and as a result dies.

Communication is how the speaker directs a moral lesson through the poem on the consequences

of not dealing with our anger through communication. The speakers use of this antithesis

demonstrates how easy it is to solve our anger by communication as well as how easy it is to

escalate the problem by not saying anything at all.

Ultimately, I thought the poem reflected a great deal of modern problems in society quite

elegantly. For example, regarding internet net neutrality, it seems only those with money are

allowed to voice their problems and thus those that dont have the benefit of a deep pocket seem

to shushed without care. Problems should be sorted out vocally and equivocally in order for their

to be a resolution. Such as in Blakes poem, if both parties do not voice their problems, someone
is bound to get hurt. However, just as it is easy to voice our problems, it is equally easy to remain

quiet.