A Poison Tree - wikipedia A Poison Tree This article is about the poem. For other topics, see Poison Tree ( disambiguation ). Hand painted copy B of William Blake 's `` A Poison Tree '', 1794 currently held at the British Museum. `` A Poison Tree '' is a poem written by William Blake, published in 1794 as part of his Songs of Experience collection. It describes the narrator 's repressed feelings of anger towards an individual, emotions which eventually lead to murder. The poem explores themes of indignation, revenge, and more generally the fallen state of mankind. Contents 1 Background 2 Poem 3 Themes 4 Reception 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links Background The Songs of Experience was published in 1794 as a follow up to Blake 's 1789 Songs of Innocence. The two books were published together under the merged title Songs of Innocence and Experience, showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul : the author and printer, W. Blake featuring 54 plates. The illustrations are arranged differently in some copies, while a number of poems were moved from Songs of Innocence to Songs of Experience. Blake continued to print the work throughout his life. Of the copies of the original collection, only 28 published during his life are known to exist, with an additional 16 published posthumously. Only 5 of the poems from Songs of Experience appeared individually before 1839 with `` A Poison Tree '' first published in the 1830 London University Magazine. The original title of the poem is `` Christian Forbearance '', and was placed as number 10 in the Rossetti manuscript, printed on a plate illustrated by a corpse under a barren tree. The body was shown in a similar manner to the crucified corpse of Blake 's `` A Negro on the Rack '' in John Gabriel Stedman 's Narrative. Poem The poem relies on a trochaic beat. It consists of four stanzas, and begins with an emphasis on the first person. The first person perspective changes with the use of the word `` And '' after the first stanza, while the emphasis on `` I '' is replaced The original draft has a line drawn beneath the first stanza, which could denote that Blake originally intended the poem as concluding at the 4th line. There are also many differences between the manuscript and published versions of the poem, with the original line 3 and 4 reading `` At a Friends Errors Anger Shew / Mirth at the Errors of a Foe. '' Themes The poem suggests that acting on anger reduces the need for vengeance, which may be connected to the British view of anger held following the start of the French Revolution. The revolutionary forces were commonly connected to the anger with opposing she 's that the anger was either a motivating rationale or simply blinded an individual to reason. Blake, like Coleridge, believed that anger needed to be expressed, but both were wary of the type of emotion that, rather than guide, was able to seize control. Poisoning appears in many of Blake 's poems. The poisoner of `` A Poison Tree '' is similar to Blake 's Jehovah, Urizen, Satan, and Newton. Through poisoning an individual, the victim ingests part of the poisoner, as food, through reading, or other actions, as an inversion on the Eucharist. Through ingestion, the poisoned sense of reason of the poisoner is forced onto the poisoned. Thus, the death of the poisoned can be interpreted as a replacement of the poisoned 's individuality. The world of the poem is one where dominance is key, and there is no reciprocal interaction between individuals because of a lack of trust. The poem, like others in Songs of Experience, reflects a uniquely Christian sense of alienation. As such, `` A Poison Tree '' appears to play off the Christian idea of self - denial, and it is possible that Blake is relying on Emanuel Swedenborg 's theme of piety concealing malice, which ultimately alienates the individual from their true identity and evil no longer appears to be evil. Blake 's poem differs from Swedenborg 's theory by containing an uncontrollable progression through actions that lead to the conclusion. The final murder is beyond the control of the narrator, and the poem reflects this by switching from past to the present tense. The poem 's theme of duplicity and the inevitable conclusion is similar to the anonymous poem `` There was a man of double deed. '' The image of the tree appears in many of Blake 's poems, and seems connected to his concept of the Fall of Man. It is possible to read the narrator as a divine figure who uses the tree to seduce mankind into disgrace. This use of the fallen state can also be found in the poems `` The Human Abstract '' and `` London '' from the Songs of Experience series. The actual tree, described as a tree of `` Mystery '', appears again in `` The Human Abstract '', and both trees are grown within the mind. Reception Samuel Taylor Coleridge, after being lent a copy of Blake 's Songs of Innocence and Experience by Charles Tulk, annotated the lines of his copy with symbols representing the phrases `` it gave me great pleasure '' `` and yet '' `` in the lowest ''. An anonymous review in the March 1830 London University Magazine titled `` The Inventions of William Blake, Paint and Poet '', stated before discussing the poem : `` let us continue to look over his notes, bright both with poetry and forms divine, which demonstrate an intimate knowledge of the passions and feelings of the human breast ''. After quoting the poem in full, the writer claimed, `` If Blake had lived in Germany, by this time he would have had commentators of the highest order upon every one of his effusions ; but here, so little attention is paid to works of the mind ''. Ralph Vaughan Williams set the poem to music in his 1958 song cycle Ten Blake Songs. The poem was set to music in 1965 by Benjamin Britten as part of his song cycle Songs and Proverbs of William Blake. Andrew Stauffer, in 2009, claimed that the poem is `` Blake 's best - known depiction of personal anger 's destructive effects ''. Notes ^ Jump up to : Gilchrist 1907 p. 118 Jump up ^ Davis 1977 p. 55 Jump up ^ Damon 1988 p. 378 Jump up ^ Bentley 2003 p. 148 Jump up ^ Bentley 2003 p. 473 Jump up ^ Davis 1977 p. 56 ^ Jump up to : Raine 2002 p. 32 Jump up ^ Davis 1973 p. 56 Jump up ^ Glen 1983 p. 190 ^ Jump up to : Staufer 2009 p. 77 Jump up ^ Stauffer 2009 pp. 87 - 88 Jump up ^ Stauffer 2009 pp. 58 Jump up ^ Peterfreund 1998 pp. 36 - 37 Jump up ^ Glen 1983 pp. 202, 347 Jump up ^ Peterfreund 1998 p. 179 Jump up ^ Glen 1983 pp. 188 - 190 Jump up ^ Thompson 1994 p. 218 Jump up ^ Bentley 2003 pp. 351 - 252 ^ Jump up to : Bentley 1975 p. 201 References Bentley, G.E. ( editor ) William Blake : The Critical Heritage. London : Routledge, 1975. Bentley, G.E. Jr. The Stranger From Paradise. New Haven : Yale University Press, 2003. ISBN 0 - 300 - 10030 - 2 Damon, S. Foster. A Blake Dictionary. Hanover : University Press of New England, 1988. Davis, Michael. William Blake : A New Kind of Man. University of California Press, 1977. Gilchrist, Alexander. The Life of William Blake. London : John Lane Company, 1907. Glen, Heather. Vision and Disenchantment : Blake 's Songs and Wordsworth 's Lyrical Ballads. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1983. Peterfreund, Stuart. William Blake in a Newtonian World. Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 1998. Raine, Kathleen. Blake and Tradition. Vol. 2. London : Routledge, 2002. Stauffer, Andrew. Anger, Revolution, and Romanticism. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Thompson, Edward. Witness Against the Beast : William Blake and the Moral Law. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1994. External links Wikisource has original text related to this article : A Poison Tree A comparison of extant versions of hand painted copies of `` A Poison Tree '' at the William Blake Archive A Poison Tree plate from Facsimile of what is Believed to be the Last Replica of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience ( 1893 ) Audio recording of `` A Poison Tree '' with text and illumination hide William Blake hide Literary works Early writings Poetical Sketches An Island in the Moon All Religions are One There is No Natural Religion Songs of Innocence and of Experience Songs of Innocence The Shepherd The Ecchoing Green The Lamb The Little Black Boy The Blossom The Chimney Sweeper The Little Boy Lost The Little Boy Found Laughing Song A Cradle Song The Divine Image Holy Thursday Night Spring Nurse 's Song Infant Joy A Dream On Another 's Sorrow Songs of Experience Introduction Earth 's Answer The Clod and the Pebble Holy Thursday The Little Girl Lost The Little Girl Found The Chimney Sweeper Nurse 's Song The Sick Rose The Fly The Angel The Tyger My Pretty Rose Tree Ah ! Sun - flower The Lilly The Garden of Love The Little Vagabond London The Human Abstract Infant Sorrow A Poison Tree A Little Boy Lost A Little Girl Lost To Tirzah The School Boy The Voice of the Ancient Bard A Divine Image ( found only in Copy BB ) Prophetic books The continental prophecies America a Prophecy Europe a Prophecy The Song of Los Other Tiriel The Book of Thel The Marriage of Heaven and Hell The French Revolution Visions of the Daughters of Albion The Book of Urizen The Book of Ahania The Book of Los The Four Zoas Milton Jerusalem The Emanation of the Giant Albion The Pickering Manuscript `` Auguries of Innocence '' `` The Mental Traveller '' The Rossetti Manuscript `` Never seek to tell thy love '' Mythology Ahania Albion Beulah Bromion Enion Enitharmon Fuzon Golgonooza Grodna Har Leutha Los Luvah Orc Palamabron Spectre Tharmas Thiriel Tiriel Urizen Urthona Utha Vala Art Paintings and prints Relief etching Engravings for Original Stories from Real Life The Ancient of Days The Night of Enitharmon 's Joy Newton Nebuchadnezzar Illustrations for Night - Thoughts Illustrations of The Grave The Four and Twenty Elders Casting their Crowns before the Divine Throne Illustrations of Paradise Lost A Vision of the Last Judgement Descriptive Catalogue The Great Red Dragon Paintings Pity The Ghost of a Flea Agony in the Garden Illustrations of On the Morning of Christ 's Nativity The Wood of the Self - Murderers : The Harpies and the Suicides Illustrations of the Book of Job Sketches Visionary Heads The Ancients Edward Calvert John Linnell Samuel Palmer George Richmond Arthur Tatham Frederick Tatham Related Catherine Blake ( wife ) Criticism and scholarship Scholars and critics Peter Ackroyd Donald Ault David Bindman Harold Bloom Nancy Bogen Jacob Bronowski S. Foster Damon David V. Erdman Northrop Frye Alexander Gilchrist Geoffrey Keynes Alicia Ostriker Kathleen Raine John Sampson E.P. Thompson W.B. Yeats Scholarly works Life of William Blake Fearful Symmetry Blake : Prophet Against Empire Witness Against the Beast Archives and Collections William Blake Archive Musical Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings ( 1943 ) Ten Blake Songs ( 1958 ) Songs and Proverbs of William Blake ( 1965 ) The Lamb ( 1982 ) Related Blake ( 1983 ) In Lambeth ( 1989 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Poison_Tree&oldid=850175763 '' Categories : Songs of Innocence and of Experience 1794 poems Hidden categories : Use dmy dates from October 2010 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikisource Add links This page was last edited on 14 July 2018, at 04 : 31 ( UTC ). About Wikipedia

Question: what does a poison tree by william blake mean
Answer: describes the narrator's repressed feelings of anger towards an individual, emotions which eventually lead to murder