A Poison Tree

Your Edexcel GCSE English Literature Poetry Anthology contains 15 poems, and in your exam you will be given one
poem – printed in full – and asked to compare it to another one from the anthology. As this is a “closed book” exam, you
will not have access to the second poem, so you will need to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise.
However, if you understand these four essential things about each poem, you will be able to produce a top-grade
response:

Examiner Tips and Tricks

The exam will ask you to compare the key themes in 'A Poison Tree' with one other poem from the Conflict Anthology;
specifically, how each poem presents ideas about conflict.

Look at the section on ‘What to compare it to’ for detailed suggestions about comparing 'A Poison Tree' with other poems
from the anthology. If 'A Poison Tree' is the printed poem on your exam paper, it’s a good idea to start your answer by
stating which poem you are going to compare it to, and why. What do they have in common? What are the key differences
in the ways the poets present their ideas?

Overview
To answer an essay question on any poem, you must understand what it is about. This section includes:

 The poem in a nutshell

 An explanation of the poem, section-by-section
 An outline of Blake’s intention and message in each of these sections

'A Poison Tree' in a nutshell

'A Poison Tree' depicts a conflict between the speaker and his enemy. It focuses on the dangers and consequences of
suppressing feelings of anger. When the speaker is angry with his friend, he finds it easy to tell his friend about his
feelings, but he is unable to do the same thing with his enemy. His anger towards his enemy grows stronger, until he
becomes obsessed by it. Blake uses the extended metaphor of a tree growing in the speaker’s garden to describe the
growth of his anger; the fruit from the tree eventually poisons his enemy. Although the speaker shows no regret about his
enemy’s death, the poem carries a powerful message about the importance of expressing our emotions, even difficult
ones.

'A Poison Tree' breakdown

Lines 1–4

“I was angry with my friend:

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow.”

Explanation

 The speaker is angry with his friend

 He tells his friend about his anger (“wrath”):
o By talking to his friend about his anger, he is able to overcome the feelings of wrath
 The speaker is then angry with his enemy (“foe”)
 He doesn’t tell his enemy about his feelings, and therefore his anger increases

Blake’s intention

 By sharing his feelings of anger with his friend, the speaker is able to resolve them and stop feeling angry
 However, he is not able to do the same thing when he feels angry with his enemy:
o This means he cannot move forward and deal with his feelings, so they increase
 By juxtaposing the two situations, Blake is demonstrating that uncomfortable feelings, like anger, can be
overcome if they are discussed
 However, if difficult feelings are not discussed, they are not resolved and instead become stronger, leading to
greater conflict
Lines 5–8

“And I water’d it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles.”

Explanation

 The speaker describes how he nurtures his growing anger:

o His anger becomes like a thing that is growing external to him
 He nurtures his anger by focusing his fears on it (“water’d” is an archaic way of writing “watered”), in the same way
as he would nurture a growing tree
 Every day, at night and in the morning, his tears make his anger grow stronger
 He provides the “sun” for its growth by smiling and deceiving others about his true feelings; his “wiles” are his
devious actions

Blake’s intention

 These lines show how the speaker’s anger increases when he keeps it to himself
 Blake’s extended metaphor depicts how the speaker’s anger is so powerful that it has become like an external
thing, with a life of its own
 By using the metaphor of a tree for the speaker’s anger, Blake is showing how repressed negative feelings
can corrupt nature itself
 However, the things that nurture the tree are the speaker’s fear and sadness – “fears” and “tears” show just how
unhealthy his obsession is
 The obsessive nature of the speaker’s anger is shown by him focusing on it constantly, “night and morning”
 Hiding his feelings from other people by smiling and pretending nothing is wrong only strengthens the speaker’s
anger and sense of inner conflict
Lines 9–12

“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,”

Explanation

 The tree that represents the speaker’s anger grows constantly

 Eventually, it produces a fruit – a shining apple
 he speaker’s enemy sees the apple and knows that it is the product of the speaker’s anger

Blake’s intention

 These lines show that suppressed anger can grow uncontrollably and result in consequences
 The speaker’s tree bears fruit; in this extended metaphor, Blake is showing how suppressed anger can produce a
negative outcome
 By ending the lines describing the apple with the adjectives “bright” and “shine”, Blake emphasises its perfection
and attractiveness
 But, because the apple has grown out of the speaker’s anger, its appearance is deceptive, so it becomes a symbol
of both wrath and deceit
 The speaker’s enemy recognises the apple as a result of the speaker’s anger and their conflict; even suppressed
anger finally reveals itself
Lines 13–16

“And into my garden stole

When the night had veil’d the pole:

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.”

Explanation

 The speaker’s enemy sneaks into speaker’s garden at night:

o The reference to the “pole” could mean the apple tree itself, or it could refer to the pole star (Polaris, the
North Star)
 If the reference is to the pole star, the fact that it is “veil’d” (covered over with clouds) could be a further metaphor
for the way in which anger can obscure morality
 It is implied that the speaker’s enemy eats the apple:
o The speaker is happy to see his enemy lying under the tree the next morning
 Although they are only described as “outstretch’d” (stretched out), the implication is that they have died

Blake’s intention

 These lines demonstrate the destructive result of suppressed anger and unresolved conflict
 Blake uses the homophone “stole” to imply the furtive nature of the enemy’s actions and their taking of the apple
without permission:
o This shows how the negative consequences of suppressed anger can spread to other people and affect
their actions, creating a wider conflict
 The speaker is “glad” to see his enemy lying under the tree, showing that his anger has corrupted his morality and
overwhelmed his personality
 The person who shared his anger with his friend at the beginning of the poem has become someone who delights
in seeing the fatal result of his anger
Writer's methods
Although this section is organised into three separate sections – form, structure and language – it is important to take
an integrated approach to AO2. That means you should only consider what the poet is presenting (their techniques, the
overall form of the poem, and how it is structured) to help you understand why they have made those choices. Think
about how Blake’s language, structure and form contribute to his themes, message and intentions.

Focusing on the themes, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. In the following sections,
all analysis is arranged by theme, including the intentions behind Blake’s choices of:

 Form
 Structure
 Language

Examiner Tips and Tricks

The best way to discuss the technical aspects of poems, such as their form, structure and language, is to weave your
knowledge into the points you make about the poem’s themes and ideas. Showing that you understand how the poet is
using a technique to get their meaning across will gain you the highest marks.

Make sure you avoid simply identifying poetic techniques without demonstrating how they help to make an idea clearer or
more effective. For instance, what effect does a particular rhyming scheme have on the poet’s message? How does the
form or structure of the poem help to get Blake’s ideas across?
Form

Blake’s regular rhyming scheme of AABB makes 'A Poison Tree' straightforward and easy to read, and gives it the feeling
of a nursery rhyme. However, the simple form of the poem conceals Blake’s very complex subject matter, the
consequences of suppressed anger and deception, just as his verses conceal the violent conflict they portray.

Theme Evidence Poet’s intention

Consequences of the Blake uses a simple, The first-person speaker emphasises the directness of
suppression of regular ballad form and his Blake’s didactic message, because the speaker is
anger narrator speaks in the first person addressing the reader directly, rather than using the third
(“I”): person

 This makes the poem easy

to read
Anger is a common human emotion and Blake wants to
convey his moral message very directly, by using a voice
and a form of verse that feels universal
Deception Blake’s regular verse form conceals The regular form of Blake’s quatrains gives the poem a
the violence of his speaker’s strong sense of control
feelings
 This is juxtaposed with the uncontrollable nature
of his speaker’s feelings; this may reflect the
speaker’s deception by suppressing his anger
 Blake wants to show how the suppression of anger
can overwhelm a person’s internal structures of
personality and morality, creating an inner conflict

Structure

Blake uses a regular structure for his four stanzas. The line endings and beginnings, in particular, draw attention to the
speaker’s suppression of anger and the importance of communication.
Theme Evidence Poet’s intention
The suppression There is a very early volta (turning point) after This emphasises the comparative power of
of anger the first two lines: suppressed anger

 The speaker deals with his anger  Blake is showing how easy it is to address
towards his friend in the first two lines; anger by expressing it, while unexpressed
the rest of the poem describes how his anger continues to grow uncontrollably
suppressed anger towards his enemy  Blake is showing how easy it is to address
spirals out of control anger by expressing it, while unexpressed
anger continues to grow uncontrollably

Blake uses anaphora in the second and third Suppressing his wrath makes the speaker
stanzas to show how the process of suppressing continue to nurture it in a compulsive way
anger has become compulsive and
uncontrollable:

 Blake uses “And” at the beginning of

several lines to suggest the speaker’s
loss of emotional control

The extended metaphor of the tree and the apple By using the metaphor of a tree to stand in for the
suggests a corruption of nature itself: speaker’s growing wrath, Blake suggests that
nature is corrupted by suppressed anger and the
 The apple can be viewed as his anger speaker’s concealment of his true feelings
growing larger and ripening
 Both the tree and the apple bring to mind
the biblical story of the serpent (Satan)
tempting Eve to eat the forbidden fruit,
which results in Adam and
Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden
 The speaker could, therefore, be likened
to the serpent tempting his enemy
  Suppressed anger and deception not only
corrupt nature, they are also unholy, in
Blake’s view

The importance The first stanza uses punctuation to demonstrate Blake is showing that sharing angry feelings – “I
of the importance of communication and the link told my wrath” – is healthy and resolves the
communication between actions and consequences: situation: “my wrath did end.”

 The first and third lines end with a colon  Not sharing these feelings – “I told it not”
(:) and the second and fourth lines end – means the speaker’s “wrath did grow”,
with a full stop, indicating that the leading to greater conflict
consequences of each of the first two
actions are inevitable. The colons here
mean “and, therefore”

Language

Most of Blake’s language is very straightforward, even when it is unfamiliar to modern readers. His use of repetition
emphasises his moral message about dealing with anger. Other techniques reveal information about
the deception practised by the speaker.

Theme Evidence Poet’s intention

Anger Blake uses repetition to draw attention to the main The couplets present mirror images of the different
theme of anger in the poem: outcomes of communicating and suppressing anger,
which emphasises Blake’s central theme
 The two couplets in the first stanza reflect
each other in their language and structure  The use of repetition draws attention to the
 In the first stanza, “angry” is repeated twice, concept of anger as Blake’s main theme in
and the metre of the lines emphasises the the poem
word. “Wrath” is also repeated three times in
this stanza

Blake uses the words “friend”, “foe”, “end” and These binary oppositions show the two
 “grow” in the first stanza to show how the speaker’s dramatically different consequences of sharing
reactions to his anger produce two completely feelings of anger and suppressing them
different outcomes
 Blake is showing how communication is the
best solution, while suppression leads to
greater conflict

Blake emphasises the continual nature of his anger by This repetition reinforces the sense that the
repeating “night and morning” and “day and night” speaker’s anger has become obsessive
and inescapable; he dwells on it all the time

 Blake is showing that suppressed anger can

be dangerous, as it takes over a person’s
whole consciousness

Deceptio Blake uses sibilance in the second stanza: “And I The repeated use of the “s” sound suggests a snake
n sunned it with smiles”. This indicates the sinister – perhaps another reference to the serpent in the
nature of his deception Garden of Eden:

 This sibilance makes the statement sound

sinister
 This line is also the only one in the poem
that breaks the regular rhythm of the verse:
it emphasises the wrongness of the speaker’s
feelings and actions
 Blake suggests that the speaker’s
concealment of his feelings has made him
behave in a sinister and wrong, even evil,
way
Context
Context is important, but knowledge of it should only be used to support an answer about Blake’s ideas, themes and
perspective. Examiners don’t want to see random chunks of information about Blake’s life or the times he lived in,
because these things don’t tell them anything about your understanding of the poem. The ideas explored in 'A Poison
Tree' revolve around the themes of anger and deception, so the contexts in which Blake formed his ideas about these
things are the most relevant. Therefore, this section is divided into two themes:

 The suppression of anger

 The dangers of deception

The suppression of anger

 William Blake was a printer and illustrator. He published 'A Poison Tree' in 1794 in his poetry collection, “Songs of
Innocence and Experience”
 All of Blake’s poems were accompanied by his own illustrations:
o The illustration to 'A Poison Tree' shows a sickly-looking tree clinging to the words of the poem
o This illustrates the way in which suppressed anger has an unhealthy hold over the speaker in the poem
 Blake did not believe that anger was wrong in itself:
o He was often angry about the greed and injustice he saw in his society
 Like other poets of the Romantic era, such as Wordsworth, Blake believed that emotional expression was a good
thing:
o However, he saw emotional repression, such as the suppression of anger depicted in 'A Poison Tree', as
unhealthy and damaging to an individual’s psyche, and to society more generally

The dangers of deception

 Blake had a very strong Christian faith, but he was angry about the beliefs and practices of the established Church
in his time:
o He saw the Anglican Church as hypocritical and deceptive:
 The Church promised people everlasting life after death
 However, it didn’t do much to make ordinary people’s lives better
  In particular, Blake rejected the Church’s insistence on the suppression of emotion, especially negative emotions
like anger:
o He saw this as dishonest and deceptive:
 This is because he believed that anger is a natural emotional response
 Therefore, suppressing anger leads to the kind of conflict he depicts in 'A Poison Tree'
 Blake was heavily influenced by the Christian Bible, and by Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’:
o In 'A Poison Tree', Blake links a biblical story, retold by Milton, with the speaker’s deception:
 In the Bible, Satan disguises himself as a serpent to tempt Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree;
as a result, Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden
 Blake links the serpent’s deception of Eve with the speaker’s deception – his “soft deceitful wiles”

Examiner Tips and Tricks

You will be expected to demonstrate your understanding of the relationship between the poem and its context in an
integrated way in your answer. That means it’s important to focus on the key themes, and be able to link them with the
main themes in the other poems in your Conflict anthology.

The exam question will suggest any relevant contexts, but your answer should emphasise the key themes of the poem.
Writing a whole paragraph about Blake’s life without linking it to one of the key themes will not gain you any marks.
Instead, aim to use your knowledge to enrich your analysis of Blake’s themes.
What to compare it to
Your exam essay will be a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. Therefore, it’s
essential to revise poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about conflict in relation to the
other poets in the anthology. The main themes in 'A Poison Tree' are the suppression of anger and the dangers of
deception, so the following comparisons are the most appropriate:

 'A Poison Tree' and 'The Man He Killed'

 'A Poison Tree' and 'Cousin Kate'

For each pair of poems, you will find:

 The comparison in a nutshell

 Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
 Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
 Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

Examiner Tips and Tricks

You will be expected to not only explore this poem in depth, but also to make perceptive comparisons between the
themes, language, form and structure used in other poems in the anthology. Therefore, it’s important that you have a
thorough knowledge of all the poems, rather than just memorising a series of quotations.

It is also essential to write about the named poem and compare it with one other poem in the anthology. You will severely
limit your marks if you only write about the poem given on the paper. Writing a thorough comparison that demonstrates
your understanding of two poems will gain you the highest marks.

'A Poison Tree' and 'The Man He Killed'

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Thomas Hardy’s 'The Man He Killed' and 'A Poison Tree' explore the destruction of an enemy. Blake’s poem depicts
the conflict between the speaker and his foe, while Hardy presents the speaker’s foe as somebody he might have been
friends with in a different context. Blake depicts the suppression of anger as the motivating force for his conflict, but Hardy
focuses his suppressed anger on the external conflict that has led to him killing a fellow human being.

Similarities:

Topic Both poems explore the destruction of an individual enemy in the context of a personal conflict
sentence (Blake) and a military conflict (Hardy)
Evidence 'A Poison Tree' 'The Man He Killed'
and analysis Blake’s language shows that the conflict between Hardy’s language also shows the mutual nature of
the speaker and his foe is mutual: the conflict between the speaker and his foe, an
enemy soldier:
 The foe sees the apple and “knew that it
was mine”, which leads to the stealing of  The speaker “shot at him as he at me”,
the apple and the enemy’s death leading to the enemy’s death

Blake uses anaphora to present the outcome of the Hardy uses repetition to show that the outcome
conflict as inevitable: between the speaker and his enemy is a logical
consequence of their situation:
 The repetition of “And” in the final two
stanzas shows the enemy’s actions  “I shot him dead because - / Because he was
following a logical sequence my foe,/ Just so: my foe of course he was;”
 “And my foe beheld it shine, / And he knew
that it was mine, // And into my garden
stole”

Both poems depict a mutual conflict between the speaker and their foe, and present the enemy’s death as
inevitable
Topic Both poems use first-person narrators to illustrate the effects of suppressed anger directly and
sentence universally
Evidence 'A Poison Tree' 'The Man He Killed'
and analysis 'A Poison Tree' is a first-person narrative, making 'The Man He Killed' is written in the first person,
its moral message about the dangers of suppressing which directly conveys the speaker’s regret and
anger more direct and personal anger about his situation
 Blake’s poem tells the story of his speaker’s Hardy uses a regular rhyming scheme for his
conflict in regular rhyming quatrains: quatrains, which gives his poem a universal, direct
quality:
 This gives it a song-like quality that makes
his moral message feel universal  This situation could happen to anyone

In 'A Poison Tree', Blake shows how the speaker’s In 'The Man He Killed', Hardy conveys suppressed
suppressed anger leads to a loss of emotional anger about the speaker’s situation, in which he has
control over his actions and the situation no choice or control over his actions
Both poems illustrate how different contexts can result in a loss of personal autonomy and control of a
situation
Differences:

Topic Violence and conflict are shown differently in each poem. In 'The Man He Killed' it is reluctant and
sentence regrettable, whereas in 'A Poison Tree' it is obsessive and personal
Evidence 'A Poison Tree' 'The Man He Killed'
and In Blake’s poem, the speaker’s anger, his In Hardy’s poem, the speaker’s violence
analysis “wrath”, is the cause of the conflict, and he is compelled by his situation:
nurtures it until it achieves his desired outcome –
the destruction of his enemy  His anger about this is conveyed in
his sardonic comment, “Yes; quaint and
curious war is!”

Blake’s descriptions of how his speaker’s anger Hardy’s language shows that he doesn’t hate his
continually “did grow” and “grew” show how he enemy, and instead focuses on the similarities between
becomes increasingly compulsive in his hatred, them in phrases like “he and I” and “just as I”:
and is “glad” when it results in his enemy’s
destruction  He uses language such as “but”, “although”
and “perhaps” to convey his regret over
causing his enemy’s death

'A Poison Tree' illustrates the power of 'The Man He Killed' illustrates the power of
suppressed anger to create conflict and governments to create conflict and overwhelm an
 overwhelm an individual’s emotional and moral individual’s autonomy and moral choices
stability
Although there is anger in both poems, the anger in 'A Poison Tree' is internalised, whereas in 'The Man
He Killed' it is directed outwards at the external forces that have created the conflict
'A Poison Tree' and 'Cousin Kate'

Both Christina Rossetti’s 'Cousin Kate' and Blake’s 'A Poison Tree' highlight the dangers of deception to an individual’s
happiness and wellbeing. In Blake’s poem, the speaker deceives himself and those around him, while in Rossetti’s poem
the speaker has been deceived by somebody else. In both poems, deception generates increased anger, hatred and
bitterness.

Similarities:

Topic Both poems show deception as dangerous and destructive

sentence
Evidence 'A Poison Tree' 'Cousin Kate'
and In 'A Poison Tree', Blake’s speaker conceals his anger: In Cousin Kate, the “great lord” conceals his
analysis true intention of making the speaker his
 He “told it not”, and it spirals out of control “plaything”, and the situation becomes one
she cannot control
The speaker deceives those around him about his true Initially, the speaker is attracted by the
feelings with “smiles / And with soft deceitful wiles.” deceitful “praise” shown to her, and her
deceiver does not reveal his true feelings
In this poem, the speaker’s anger grows until it bears In Rossetti’s poem, the speaker is “lured” by
fruit, an “apple bright”, which tempts his enemy into the the lies her lover tells her, tempting her
deceitful – and fatal – act of stealing it to transgress the social and moral rules of her
society
The theme of deception is key in both poems; it leads to a loss of control, temptation, and harm
Topic In both poems, deception is shown to lead to negative consequences, such as transgression or even
sentence death
Evidence 'A Poison Tree' 'Cousin Kate'
and In 'A Poison Tree', the metaphor of the tree and the apple In 'Cousin Kate', the lord’s deception leads to
analysis link to the biblical story of Satan’s deception of Eve, the speaker’s transgression, which results in
 whose transgression results in her banishment her being regarded as “unclean” and an
“outcast”
Deception has catastrophic consequences for the Deception results in the loss of an ordinary
speaker’s foe, who ends the poem “outstretch’d beneath life for Rossetti’s speaker, who can only “sit
the tree” and howl in dust” after her deceiver abandons
her
Deception is shown to be a dangerous and destructive force in both poems
Differences:

Topic While both poets explore the dangers of deception, they present this in different ways
sentence
Evidence 'A Poison Tree' 'Cousin Kate'
and In 'A Poison Tree', the deception is performed In 'Cousin Kate', the speaker is the one who is
analysis by the speaker, and those around him are deceived, leading to her social and moral ruin
deceived
Blake shows how deception is caused by the Rossetti shows how the deception practised upon the
speaker’s “wrath”, and provides an environment speaker leads to her anger once the truth is revealed
in which it can grow
Blake’s poem presents his speaker’s deception Rossetti’s poem is episodic, and her speaker moves
as a continual process, which he carries on “day back and forth between past and present:
and night”:
 Her anger grows when she reflects on her
 The linear structure of the narrative situation and the deception that created it,
shows how his deception allows his moving from the self-pity of “I moan” to the
anger to build rage of “I would have spit into his face”

Anger is associated with deception in both poems, but in 'A Poison Tree' the speaker is driven to deception
by his anger, while in 'Cousin Kate', the speaker is driven to anger by deception