During a period of Romanticism and a strong appreciation for literature, William Blake proved to the literary world that “Imagination is a doorway to the infinite.” Blake was more than just your average poet; he was a creator of beauty. His work came alive through the words and illustrations he hand made and published. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are Blake’s two symphonies of words that convey the juxtaposing ideas of human nature. “The Poison Tree” is the perfect representation of the experience aspect of Blake’s work due to the way it pulls the reader to ”disillusionment with human nature and society.” It leaves the reader in awe of the capability of humans and causes us to reflect on our own decadent actions in correlation to one of the seven deadly sins; the wrath of human beings.
This poem is set in the speaker’s garden, a sacred place where he can assess his relationships and harvest his emotions. The speaker seems to be just an average man speaking on behalf of his personal experience and sharing this with his audience. Due to the simplicity of the poem’s theme we can assume the audience was intended to be humans in general, Blake wanted the message to be clear to everyone. As readers we can easily relate to the idea of holding a grudge against our enemies and letting it fester inside.
We are drawn in from the first rhyming couplet, “I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end.” because of the connection we feel; it’s a situation we have all been in. And due to the exact rhyme, we are led to view it as an almost “Mother Goose” story, yet we soon realize it’s not your average storybook moral. (Heims) This couplet is soon contrasted with the slight change from “I told my wrath, my wrath d...
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...ng us know that we are capable of greatness but we are also capable of destruction. This ties into Blake’s idea of organized innocence, “One’s sense of the divinity of humanity coexisting with oppression and injustice.” which to me means that we can believe that people are honestly good, but we can’t ignore the bad in the world because it plays a key role as well. We must become confident in our ability and unafraid of what lies ahead and then we can realize our full potential as a human race.
Works Cited
Heims, Neil. Critical Essay on "A Poison Tree," in Poetry for Students, Thomson Gale, 2006.
Moore, Andrew. "Poems by William Blake - study guide." Teach It. Andrew Moore, 2004. Web. 3 Apr 2011. .
Respeck, . " William Blake "A Poison Tree"." 09 03 2005. Online Posting to eCheat . Web. 3 Apr 2011.
The poem “A Poison Tree” by William Blake and the story, “The Cask of Amontillado” written by Edgar Allan Poe writes about revenge. Overall both the poem and the short story share how they developed the overall theme, and to express the act, each of the writings use dramatic irony and sensory
Allison, Barrows, Blake, et al. eds. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry . 3rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 1983. 211.
Thomas." The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003. 101-10. Print.
The theme of the suffering innocent person, dying and being diseased, throws a dark light onto the London seen through the eyes of William Blake. He shows us his experiences, fears and hopes with passionate images and metaphors creating a sensibility against oppression hypocrisy. His words come alive and ask for changes in society, government and church. But they remind us also that the continued renewal of society begins with new ideas, imagination and new works in every area of human experience.
Blake’s poetry focuses on imagination. When Blake created his work, it gained very little attention. Blake’s artistic and poetic vision is reflected in his creations. Blake was against the Church of England because he thought the doctrines were being misused as a form of social control, it meant the people were taught to be passively obedient and accept oppression, poverty, and inequality. In Blake’s poems “The Lamb,” “The Tyger,” and Proverbs of Hell, he shows that good requires evil in order to exist through imagery of animals and man.
In conclusion, Blake points out the spiritual deterioration of his time in "London." He sees what is plainly visible but goes unnoticed by other men. He becomes the wanderer, the poet-prophet, the voice of experience crying for all to take note and mend their ways.
Blake had an uncanny ability to use his work to illustrate the unpleasant and often painful realities around him. His poetry consistently embodies an attitude of revolt against the abuse of class and power that appears guided by a unique brand of spirituality. His spiritual beliefs reached outside the boundaries of religious elites loyal to the monarchy. “He was inspired by dissident religious ideas rooted in the thinking of the most radical opponents of the monarchy during the English Civil War “(E. P. Thompson). Concern with war and the blighting effects of the industrial revolution were displayed in much of his work.
It was written in 1794 by William Blake. He starts off in the first stanza by describing two different situations where the narrator has felt anger. In the first scenario, the narrator was mad at his friend. He told his friend about his anger and it went away. “I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end.” However, in the second scenario, the narrator is angry with his enemy but keeps the anger to himself. This causes the anger to grow and the rest of the poem expands on this. “I was angry with my foe; I told it not, my wrath did grow.” In the second and third stanza, the narrator goes on to talk about how he heightened his anger by ‘watering’ and ‘sunning’ it with tears and fake smiles until it produced an apple. This is when the title becomes of importance because we can understand that anger is being compared to a poison tree. The apple that was created by his anger is, in this case, a reference to the poisonous apple in Snow White. The poem ends with the enemy dead, after tasting a bite from the poisonous apple. “In the morning, glad I see. My foe outstretched beneath the tree.” The main theme in this poem is anger and the destructive consequences of anger. It teaches us that anger is a normal emotion that needs to be properly dealt with. It also tells us that anger is never anger by itself. Rather, it requires fear and sorrow to actually
When one looks at the title, “ A Poison Tree” one can assume the poem is going to be about some sort of fauna. When the reader goes on to read the poem in its entirety, one sees “ A Poison Tree” is simply a symbolic title. The poem begins with someone telling of his wrath for a friend. He had once told a friend why he was mad at or angry with him. When he spoke to the friend, the irritation went away. In another instance, he was also angry with his enemy. He had never told his enemy basically that he held him with the title of “enemy” and his angst or hate for him grew. The poem takes on an “AA, BB” end rhyme scheme in that a sentence (in a group of two) will rhyme with the next.
In “A Poison Tree,” by William Blake is a central metaphor explains a truth of human nature. The opening stanza sets up everything for the entire poem, from the ending of anger with the “friend,” to the continuing anger with the “foe.” Blake startles the reader with the clarity of the poem, and with metaphors that can apply to many instances of life.
In his work, Songs of Innocence and Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul, William Blake uses the aforementioned contrasting states of being to illustrate his unique view of the world around him. Through this work, Blake lays bare his soulful views of religion and ethics, daring the reader to continue on in their narcissistic attitudes and self-serving politics. While Blake's work had countless themes, some of the most prevalent were religious reform, social change, and morality. Philosophically, one would think that William Blake was a Deist; however Blake rejected the Deist view of life. He was a devout Christian, yet he also wanted nothing to do with the church or their teachings. These views give Blake a refreshingly sincere quality with regards to his art and writings. Blake frequently alluded to Biblical teachings in his work and, more often than not, used corresponding story lines to rail against the Church's views and accepted practices. One may say however, that Blake's universal appeal lies within his social commentary. Similar to a fable, Blake weaves a poetically mystical journey for the reader, usually culminating in a moral lesson. One such poem, "A Poison Tree," clearly illustrates some of William Blake's moral beliefs. With his use of imagery, as well as an instinctive knowledge of human nature, William Blake shows just how one goes from the light to the darkness (from innocence to experience) by the repression of emotions.
William Blake, one of the infamous English romantic poets, is most known for his romantic views on conventional scenes and objects, which were presented in his works The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience. The first collection was published in 1789, and addresses subjects such as suffering and death from the innocent and optimistic perspective of a child. The later collection addresses these same issues, but is told from the perspective of an experienced bard. The poems contained in The Songs of Innocence often have a counter part in the second collection that reflects a darker or more corrupted take on the same subject. For example, the purity presented in the creation of “The Lamb” is dramatically contrasted with its shameful counterpart “The Tyger”. In this essay, I will argue that William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” alludes to his belief in a darker side of creation and the implications of the Industrial Revolution, my argument is based on Blake’s use of rhetorical questions, word choice, and the poem’s context; specifically in the fourth and fifth stanzas. In the beginning of the poem the tiger appears as a striking and wondrous creature, however, as the poem progresses, the tiger takes on a symbolic meaning, and comes to be a physical manifestation of the spiritual and moral problem the poem explores: creation, divine and manmade.
Even just looking at the title of the poem it is obvious there is a very distinct nod to nature in this piece. The nature in this instance seems to me to be a neutral force but when the tree is used for the authors impure business the tree turns into an evil symbol. “Till it bore an apple bright.” I would like to think that the trees poison was just another point of the trees beauty but when it is warped for a man’s evil purpose the tree is to blame while the man remains free.
The author of the poem, William Blake, reveals the theme by using figurative language and characterization. The theme of the poem is anger builds up and leads to poor decisions. In “A Poison Tree,” the author uses figurative language, such
“A Poison Tree” written by William Blake in 1757-1827 tells a tale of a man who withholds from expressing his anger and vengeance which eventually turns into the murder of his foe some individuals interpret this poem to be depicting Christianity and the love of God. The theme of anger and vengeance is expressed by the way the writer, William Blake, conveys the speaker’s feelings with the use of imagery, figurative language, and tone.