A Poison Tree

                William Blake’s “A Poison Tree” is really more of a harsh lesson that all must learn and follow than a poem. It talks of how when you are angry about something related to your friends, such as he ate your sandwich, you forgive him, however when your “foe” (for example, the school bully) does the same thing (eats your lunch), you plot and plan what you want to do to him, and your anger grows. With your friend, you realize you should let it out, and you talk, or forgive, but against an enemy that you already don’t like, you don’t want to forgive him of his trespasses; you want to get even (an eye for an eye). Most people don’t actually go through their plans of vengeance in the name of justice, but in Blake’s poem, he shows the extreme, where a man got angry with an enemy, so he didn’t say anything and didn’t forgive, and over time it grew like a tree, and when the time eventually came that he saw his enemy down, he was happy. There is something from all of this that we can learn- we need to forgive our anger, at least forget, or it will grow and grow into something that is as much a part of yourself as your arm or fingers, and it may consume you. Blake’s imagery in his poems, this one in particular, helps me to see exactly what he is trying to get across, because I can imagine just how long and consuming a tree could be when you grow and feed it, and your potential joy at something equally potentially dreadful. Blake leaves these images and meanings in his poems for a reason, and we would be wise to learn by them.