The poem A Poison Tree has four stanzas and follows the rhyme pattern aabb. Each quatrain is made up of sets of rhyming couplets with complete rhyme. The metre (meter in the United States) is largely trochaic trimeter, which means that each line has three feet with the beat of DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DAdum DA. The first two lines are an example of monostichy: one idea or sentence per line. The third line contains two ideas or sentences while the fourth line only has one. This type of meter is common in poetry. There is a lot of variation between different versions of A Poison Tree. Some contain 12, some contain 14 lines and some even split them into two eight-line sections with a break in the middle. The exact origin of the poem is unknown but it is believed to have been written sometime before 1720 when it was included in the first collection of English poems called Poems by Three British Women Authors (published in London). These women were Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1630-1696); Sarah Farmer (c. 1650-1708); and Elizabeth Trapaud (1672/3-1756). There are several variations of the poem circulating at this time so it is possible that one of these versions inspired its writer.