William Blake's Poem, "A Poison

William Blake's poem, "A Poison Tree," examines anger from the perspective of one controlled by anger. This poem is compelling because while it takes place within the speaker's mind, it divulges the levels of contempt of which we are all capable. Things occur because the speaker allows them to occur. He understands his culpability but, in the end can only acknowledge that he is only human and, as a result, hypocritical. The truth of the human spirit is that it can be tricky and plat many poison trees.

The scene of the poem takes place in the speaker's imagination, where the speaker realizes the dangers of the human mind. In short, he does not have to go anywhere to see how cruel people can be to one another. Neil Heims notes the poem states the "correspondence between the spiritual and natural worlds that is effected by the mind" (Heims) and the tree "grows in the human brain, not in nature. Taken from the imagination, the tree is planted in culture" (Heims).

The speaker, an unidentified man, speaks honestly about how the anger grew for his foe grew. The plot in "A Poison Tree" unfolds as the speaker allows his anger to fester. Because he did not speak his grievance, it did not leave him. Instead, it grew. It fell to the ground like a seed and it grew because the speaker continued to feed it. Neil Heims writes the central image of the poem is the tree, which is a metaphor representing "wrath" (Heims).

The tree began from a single thought, just a seed, and not only grew but also bore dangerous fruit. In addition, it was lovely and tempting. Furthermore, the speaker allows his foe to eat the fruit. The speaker of the poem is a man and he is addressing everyone who reads this poem. The speaker also addresses himself. The conflict does not come from outside the speaker; it is all within him.

This makes the conflict that much more difficult to bear and this motivates him to write the poem, if for nothing else than to ease his spirit. The speaker resolves the conflict through admission. It is a painful admission because the speaker must admit to his own humanity while doing so. It was his own anger that planted the seed and allowed his foe to eat the fruit. The tree in the poet's imagination is like the tree in Eden in that they both are corrupt.

The significance of the events occurring in the speaker's mind forces him to admit his humanity. He is corrupt and morally wrong for allowing these events to occur, even if they did occur only in his mind. "A Poison Tree" tells the tale of the human psyche. The speaker reveals the hypocrisy of men with a.