“A Poison Tree”: A Critical Analysis

Student Last Name 1
“A Poison Tree”: A Critical Analysis
Student Name
ENGL 2240
Monday 2 November
Word Count: 1112
Student Last Name 2
“A Poison Tree”: A Critical Analysis
In “A Poison Tree,” Blake offers a panoramic view of humanity's state of grace. Informed, apparently, by Original Sin, Blake delves deep in one man's – every man's – soul and exposes pretenses of human camaraderie by showing a double standard of forgiving friends and avenging foes. Indeed, “friend” is mentioned only once in “A Poison Tree,” whereas “foe” is repeated in different forms and state of anger expressions – an indication of man's state of fallen grace and growing malice. The state of humanity's animosity is, moreover, further complicated by a deception. Initially, poem's speaker acknowledges using “soft deceitful wiles” in order to lure his foe only to kill him eventually. The sense of plotting and conspiracy is perhaps most evident in Stanza 3:
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 [emphasis added].
The suggestion of an Apple/Knowledge Tree is evident, as emphasized above. By luring an enemy into a bait, poem's speaker invokes humanity's original sin leading up to man's fallen grace and constant state of animosity. The sense of plotting and deception is, moreover sustained in Stanza Four only to give way to, perhaps an all too predictable, climax of murder. The diction is particularly suggestive in Stanza Four: “garden,” “stolen,” “night,” and “veiled.” The scene of darkness, as an enemy creeps in, gives way to a morning ironically exposing not so much enlightenment and salvation, as is common in images of morning and light, yet to a broad day light murder, perhaps an allusion to Cain's First Murder of Abel. The poem could, accordingly,
Student Last Name 3
be interpreted, in one reading, as a lamentation of humanity's state of fallen grace. This interpretation finds an ingenious parallel in rhymes and imagery Blake employs in “A Poison Tree.”
In poem's introductory stanza, a scene is set to readers to appreciate what is to come using a subtle rhyming scheme. The poem's fist stanza alternates changes from “aa” (“I was angry with my friend/I told my wrath, my wrath did end”) to “bb” (“I was angry with my foe/I told it not, my wrath did grow”) end rhymes to juxtapose, perhaps, speaker's dual standards managing anger, or wrath, against a friend and a foe. The abruptness of voiced sound of /d/, marking short span of anger against a friend is, more specifically, followed by an elongation of diphthong of /əʊ/, marking prolonged animosity against a an enemy. This contrast is end rhyming is, moreover, reflected in internal rhyming placing more emphasis on speaker's double standards. This is, for instance, evident in using emphatic mood in “did end” and “did grow.” The quickness and abruptness of uttering “did end” does, in fact, contrast with a divergence in sound effect of uttering “did gr...