A POISON TREE

LEARNING OBJECTIVE
Recite and understand the meaning of the
poem stanza by stanza
Identify literary elements in the poem

Think about your friends and what

they mean to you.
Have you ever been in a situation
when you had an argument or
something happened that was left
unresolved?
Write down your experience on a
piece of paper

WILLIAM BLAKE
Born November
28, 1757
London,
England
Died August 12,
1827
London,
England

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 & 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

Summary
st

1
Stanza

The persona is
angry with his
friend and his
foe
He talks about
his
misunderstand
ing with his
friend and gets
over it
He does not
talk about his
anger to his
foe and it
grows into a
plant

2
Stanza
nd

The persona
feeds his
plant with
anger and
hatred
He watered
his plant with
his tears
He nourishes
it with fake
smiles and
deceitful
wiles

3rd
Stanza
His tree of
anger grows
and was
poisonous
because it is
filled with
anger and
hatred
The tree
bears an
apple and his
foe sees it
and wants to
eat it

4th
Stanza
One dark
night, his foe
sneaks into
his garden
and steals his
poisonous
apple.
He eats it and
dies.
The next
morning the
persona feels
glad to see
his foe dead
under his
poison tree

Literary elements
Setting
Place: In his garden, under the poison
tree Time: at night, the next morning
Tone
Anger, bitterness, accusing
Language and style
Personification, Metaphor, Symbolism,
Imagery

Themes
Anger/ Wrath

Forgive and
forget

Friend vs. Foe

In the poem, the

persona decided to
talk about his
feelings with his
friend and the
problem resolved

Blake advises us
In friendship, we
not to nourish
must not let our
anger and hatred
anger grow.
against our
friends and foes. We need to talk
about our
He preaches love
feelings and
against hatred
With his foe, he
discuss
why
the
and trust against
decided to let his
misunderstandin
misunderstandin
anger grew for a
g happened.
g.
long time and it grew
Blake suggests
into A poison tree
that it is best to
which bore a
forgive and
dangerous apple that
forget so that we
killed his foe.
will have a peace
of mind

Moral values
We must not harbour wrath
and hatred against anyone
We should talk and discuss
about our feelings
We must learn to forgive
and forget

Take out the

problem you
have faced with
a friend
How do feel
about the
situation after
reading A
Poison Tree?
What does the
poem teach us?

thanks!

ANY QUESTIONS?