First Year : Poison Tree
INTRODUCTION
A Poison Tree is a
poem about the growing anger. It was first published in 1793 and was written by
William Blake. He was born on November 28, 1757 in London. Blake married
Catherine Boucher at age 25, and she worked with him on most of his artistic
creations. Together they published a book of Blake's poems and drawings called Songs
of Innocence. Blake poured his whole being into his work. The lack of
public recognition sent him into a severe depression which lasted from
1810-1817, and even his close friends thought him insane. He died on August 12,
1827, and is buried at Bunhill Fields, London.
II
ANALYSIS
Metaphor
Title: A Poison Tree
Tree is the metaphor for anger which
is growing on and on, and finally bears fruit of anger itself. It grows from
the small seed to a big deadly tree.
Line 5: And I waterd it in
fears,
It refers to plant. From this second stanza there are words like watered and
sunned. Water and sun are two things a plant need the most. If we read until
the end, we can conclude that the plant is a tree. This tree is a metaphor foranger.
It’s small, because it’s created from the seed.
Watered is one of the tree’s main supplies. Without it, tree will die. In this
line, the persona keeps his anger by supplying the fears and
tears. This is the reason why the tree keeps growing, because he takes care of
it.
Line 6: Night & morning with
my tears
Night and morning symbolizes that he keeps it in every time of his life. The
anger has controlled him and left no empty space.
Tears symbolize his silent pain. Usually when people cry, they do
not make sound but their tears keep flowing down. He watered the tree with
tears instead of water, because tears are like the water of sadness. Combined
with fears, these two things have been threatening him and become the source of
his anger more and more.
Line 3: And I sunned it with smiles,
Sun is also the aspect of tree’s life. It needs sun to digest the food and bear
fruit. Sunned means burned as well. It can burn you and cause some disease, but
usually we don’t realize it, we only think that it’s warm, but there are always
risks behind it, like the ultraviolet ray. It’s the same with the persona
action. Something that looks safe and pleasant, but harmful.
Smiles here mean fake smiles. He adds fake smile to create the trap.
Line 8: And with soft deceitful wiles.
Soft here represents something almost uncaught. The deceive tricks that he uses
for the traps, one package with fake smiles, is in a soft way, because he
doesn’t want his enemy to run away frightened. The main purpose is to trap.
This creates illusion of friendliness.
Line 9: And it grew both day and night.
Day and night here mean on and on. There’s no pause or stop in this process of
growing wrath. It shows how addicted the persona to his own wrath is.
Line 10: Till it bore an apple bright.
Apple is the metaphor for irresistible temptation. It’s the fruit of wrath.
When the tree is well-maintained and grows up, it bears good fruit. However
that tree is a poison tree, so the fruit becomes poisonous fruit as well.
Nobody knows that it’s poisonous except the gardener himself. The fruit is
poisonous inside, but looks delicious outside. That’s why we call it terrible
yet tempting. So from the wrath of the persona, he creates temptation for his
foe.
Bright symbolizes something precious and valuable. A shiny thing always tempts
people’s curiosity. It explains that the wrath of the persona has been packed
as if it’s good and pleasant thing to trap the foe.
Line 11: And my foe beheld it shine.
Shine symbolize the foe; his eyes can be shiny to see the tempting apple. It
makes him want to try it. Moreover, he knows that it is belonged to the
persona. It makes him is even more tempted to steal it. From here it can be
concluded that this foe, can be the persona’s foe, because he ever took
something belongs to the persona.
Line 13: And into my garden stole,
My garden is the metaphor of the persona’s area. It’s like his life,
where there are many kinds of trees. It can be the good ones and the poisonous
one. When this foe enters his garden, it means he annoys his life, again, but
now the foe does it by purpose, to steal the beautifully-packaged wrath.
Stole means that the foe comes secretly to the garden, when night and nobody
sees it. This emphasizes that the foe deserve the blame, because he is
stealing. The culpability has been created by the persona himself. He is the
one who has laid snares for his foe and is responsible for it.
Line 14: When the night had veild
the pole
Pole can be defined as Pole Star, is the navigation light for the sailor. It
means instruction or guidance.
Night is the metaphor for darkness. Here darkness can mean bad
intention or evil thought or passion. It’s exactly match with foe’s action in
stealing the apple. He did it when the night which like fog, had veiled the
pole, which means when the bad darkness covers the good indications. It
strengthens the temptation and makes the foe get the chance to steal the apple.
Line 15: In the morning glad I see;
Morning symbolizes new day and new hope. Here the persona gets his hope, to see
that his trap was working. Morning also is a metaphor for something bright
and clear. It means that the persona can see the ‘death’ of his for clearly.
Line 16: My foe outstretchd beneath the tree.
Outstretched means die. Here die doesn’t mean that the foe is really dead
physically. But it’s the metaphor of dying psychologically. Like
what has been analyzed before, that the tree and apple are creations which are
created by the persona but not in his reality world. It seems like happening in
mind. From this creation in mind, the persona does the real action and can be
concluded that it refers to a real trap for the foe, the trap to kill him
psychologically, and the persona is succeed.
Beneath means lose. When we are fighting, finally the loser is
under the winner. Here the foe is described that he is lying under the tree,
which shows that he has lost against the growing wrath.
3.1.2 Contradiction
The first is in the
first stanza, between 1st, 2nd line with 3rd,
4th line.
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
When the persona
angry with his friend, he will tell his friend and everything will be clear and
okay. They will find the solution for the problem and the wrath ends. But here
he puts the difference action toward his foe. He doesn’t tell what annoy him, and
he lets the wrath grows. It seems like if he tells the foe, the foe may react
badly, and cause something which is not good for the persona. There’s
contradiction in his action and feeling.
The second is in
the second stanza, 1st, 2nd line with 3rd,
4th line.
And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
Both of these actions supply the tree’s needs. The persona takes care of the
tree by giving what it needs to grow and bear fruits. But as the contradiction,
first he gives fears and tears which unpleasant, but he also gives smiles and
wiles which is packaged into pleasant things. Fears and tears are not shown to
the foe, but smiles and wiles are shown.
3.1.3 Paradox
· Poison and Tree
A poison tree is a
paradox because poison means something dangerous and can be harmful, which
leads into death. Contradictorily, tree represents life, because it produces
oxygen that brings life for humanity. This contradicts each other, because tree
is supposed to give life to human, not to bear such a poisonous fruit that can
end life.
3.2 Textual Stage
The disunity of this poem can be found in the first stanza, which tells
us about the seed of the tree. It tells about the process from
where the tree is beginning to grow. The second stanza is about the
maintenance of the tree.It tells us the process in maintaining, by giving
water and sun supplies. The third is about the growth of the tree,
which shows that the tree is growing and bearing such a tempting fruit, and how
the foe is tempted. The forth is about the effect of the tree, which
tells us that the foe steals the fruit and gets poisoned and die.
It can be seen from the point of view also. In the first stanza the
persona can be seen as a human like usual. But in the second,
third, and forth he can be seen as a gardener. The gardener itself
is also a metaphor for the persona who creates the garden and takes care of the
tree.
3.3 Linguistic Stage
From the analysis of metaphor, paradox, and contradictions in this poem,
it’s revealed that anger can’t be kept and maintained. It should vanish as
quick as possible. It has to be clear between two parties because if people
keep it, it will grow like a tree and bear poisonous fruit. Therefore, the
theme of this story is “Suppressed wrath can harm the life”.
The surface meaning of this poem is
about someone who felt anger at his enemy, but he didn’t talk about it and let
it grows in his heart and mind.
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