MIDTERM TEST
ANALYSIS POEM “ A POISON TREE” BY WILLIAM BLAKE
By :
Catur Nur Arifah
20020084086
INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE 2020C
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI SURABAYA
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I A POISON TREE ............................................................................................................ 3
CHAPTER II ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................... 4
A.
INTRINSICT ELEMENTS ................................................................................................... 4
A.
Theme ...................................................................................................................................... 4
B.
Stanza ...................................................................................................................................... 4
C.
Rhyme...................................................................................................................................... 5
D.
Symbol ..................................................................................................................................... 5
E.
Message ................................................................................................................................... 6
EXTRINSICT ELEMENTS ...................................................................................................... 6
B.
A.
Social........................................................................................................................................ 6
CHAPTER III REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 7
CHAPTER I
A POISON TREE
A Poison Tree
BY WILLIAM BLAKE
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.
And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
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.
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veild the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
CHAPTER II
ANALYSIS
A. INTRINSICT ELEMENTS
A. Theme
The main theme of the "Poison Tree" is not anger itself, but how to suppress anger points
to the development of anger. Burying anger rather than expressing it and confessing it,
according to "A Poison Tree", replaces anger as a seed that will germinate. Through the
planting of that seed, which is nourished by the energy of the angry man, rage grows as a
powerful and destructive force.
B. Stanza
This verse of poetry is called a quatrain. A stanza with four lines with the second and fourth
lines rhyming. all the stanzas in the poem have the same stanza.
Stanza
Stanza 1
Poem
I was angry with my friend;
Stanza Scheme
Quatrain
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
Stanza 2
And I waterd it in fears,
Quatrain
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
Stanza 3
And it grew both day and night.
Quatrain
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.
Stanza 4
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veild the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
Quatrain
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
C. Rhyme
"The Poison Tree" has a regular rhyme line. As we can see, the first two lines have the same
sound at the end of each one so the last two lines have the same sound. So the poetry rhyme
is AABB.
Line
Stanza 1
Stanza 2
Stanza 3
Stanza 4
Poem
Rhyme Scheme
I was angry with my friend;
A
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
A
I was angry with my foe:
B
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
B
And I waterd it in fears,
A
Night & morning with my tears:
A
And I sunned it with smiles,
B
And with soft deceitful wiles.
B
And it grew both day and night.
A
Till it bore an apple bright.
A
And my foe beheld it shine,
B
And he knew that it was mine.
B
And into my garden stole,
A
When the night had veild the pole;
A
In the morning glad I see;
B
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
B
D. Symbol
William Blake's "A Poison Tree" basically uses two symbols (apple and tree) to connect
the meaning. The tree represents the anger growing in the speaker's heart against his enemy
and the apple represents the "fruit" of that anger, an act, in poetry, of murder. In the poem
there is also the word "gentle" which describes When aligned with 'guile', it implies a
luxurious sense of pleasure which the speaker takes when he tries to deceive the enemy.
E. Message
"A Poison Tree" expresses anger reducing violent expressions of revenge or revenge. The
poet's speaker reveals that the "recited" anger disappears, and stops affecting the speaker.
However, anger that was not expressed was cultivated, and it eventually grew. Anger is
poisonous to both the speaker and the speaker's enemy because the enemy is ultimately
killed and the speaker is metaphorically the cause of the enemy's death.
So the message conveyed by William Blake through this poem is the redness that has been
hidden for so long will be extraordinary anger and can kill someone's friend.
B. EXTRINSICT ELEMENTS
A. Social
The poem "The Poison Tree" shows that acting out of anger reduces the need for revenge,
which may be related to using the British view of the anger held after the start of the French
Revolution which was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France from 1789
to 1799 which was very influencing French and modern history, marking the decline of the
powerful monarchy & church and the rise of democracy and nationalism. Revolutionary
forces are generally associated with self-actualizing the anger of the opposite party using
the excuse that anger is a motivating reason or simply blinds a person in reason.
CHAPTER III
REFERENCES
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-theme-poem-poison-tree-thank-you144241#:~:text=The%20principal%20theme%20of%20%22A,a%20seed%20that%20will%20
germinate.
https://www.marmanold.com/undergrad/2004/symbolism-and-meaning-of-a-poison-tree/
https://crossref-it.info/textguide/songs-of-innocence-and-experience/13/1619
https://www.academia.edu/41962081/Stylistic_analysis_of_a_poison_tree