A Poison Tree

• Simple AABB rhyme scheme and four quatrains which reflects being outwardly suppressed and simple but actually being morally complex
• “...with my foe:/…my wrath did grow.”“...into my garden stole/…veil’d the pole”?

  • Parallel syntax and caesura onto enjambment
  • The poem has caesura at the end of each stanza, separating lines with parallel syntax to reflect the separation between the voice and the foe. Until the last stanza where the built up anger finally unleashes in an uncontrollable nature
• “And”?

  • Anaphora
  • Rising tension replicates the growing of the tree of wrath
• “Foe” remains unnamed throughout the entire poem to ensure the reader’s focus completely on why they shouldn’t repress anger
• “..into my garden stole”?


  • Ambiguous language reflects uncertain feelings and the reader’s dilemma about who to sympathise with
  • Could imply a sin or simply coming into the garden
• “An apple bright”?


  • The symbol of the apple is the manifestation of the tree of wrath and symbolises the deceit in the poem
  • The speaker tempts the foe into suffering from his own anger to show how repressing anger can lead to malicious  intentions and the suffering of others, suggesting this was the original fall of man
• “And it grew both day and night,/Till it bore an apple bright.”?


  • Natural/religious imagery
  • Reaches a Christian audience to criticise the search and juxtaposes the connotations of growth, making it relate to how it affects man in an emotionally torturing way
• Extended metaphor of the tree

  To represent the Tree of Life to show how the writer himself is choosing to cultivate the anger himself and how suppressing it has led to it growing deeper and larger
• “And I sunned it with smiles,/And with soft deceitful wiles.”?


  • Sibilance
  • Softens the tone and creates a false sense of security and sincerity but creates a sinister atmosphere to foreshadow the dark ending
• From Song of Innocence and Experience showing that Blake aimed to teach a valuable lesson on the reality of life to teach people to not suppress their anger. Immediately creates a more pessimistic and sinister tone
• William Blake believed in God heavily but was against the Church. Here he is criticising the encouragement to suppress emotions especially the sin of wrath and he is arguing the emotional harm of that to humans, extending the idea to the downfall of Adam and Eve
• Natural imagery of

  “Apple, tree, garden”

  All relate to the story of Adam and Eve to replicate how they had been tempted by the manifestation of wrath which took them out of Paradise