WILLIAM BLAKE
1757-1827
“A Poison Tree” (1794)
“The Divine Image”
(1789)
“You never know what is enough unless
you know what is more than enough.”
By: Alex Andresakis
Shinhyuk Bang
JianHui Li
Kevin Phung
Andrew Wong
Biography Of William Blake
2
Date of Birth: November 28th, 1757
Date of Death: August 12th, 1827 (Poverty)
Education
In 1767 (12) he began study at Henry Pars Drawing Class in the Strand, and in 1771 (14) was apprenticed of engraving.
Marriage
He married Catherine Boucher.
Brother
Blake’s brother Robert died. Blake claimed that the spirit of Robert came to him in a vision in the night, and revealed
the technique of combining text and pictures on one engraved plate.
The Songs of Innocence
He hand produced the Songs of Innocence using this new method in 1789 (32) with the help of his wife, having taught
her to read and write. The text and illustrations were printed from copper plates, and the illustrations then finished by
hand with watercolors.
Prophetic books
Blake had produced many of his ‘prophetic’ books : The Visions of the Daughters of Albion, America a Prophecy, The
Songs of Experience and The First Book of Urizen.
A new generation of admirers
After 1818 (61) his work found admirers amongst water-colourists of the next generation, particularly John Linnell
and John Varley who encouraged him and commissioned works
Historical/ Social Background
Divine Image:
This poem has an historical background to it when it was written by William Blake.
In the time this was written, it was a religious period. So the poem was based off
some religious principles like mercy, pity, peace and love. "The speaker states that
all people pray to these in times of distress and thank them for blessings because
they represent “God, our father dear.”(spark notes) If one obtained any one of those
virtues, they could be considered divine.
Poison Tree:
This poem has an historical background also located in a religious time. "Religious
dissent in England, which first appeared in 1662 when a group of English Puritans
broke away from the Church of England, refusing to take communion in the Church
or accept its doctrines and authority, took many forms."(book rags)This poem was
written as a way to oppose the Church of England and its practices.
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The Divine Image (1789)
BY WILLIAM BLAKE
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.
For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
Then every man, of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
And all must love the human form,
In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too.
A Poison Tree (1794)
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.
The Divine Image (1789)
To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
All pray in their distress;
And to these virtues of delight
Return their thankfulness.
We think that mercy, pity, peace and love are
necessary for men to attain. They pray to God when in
agony, but when they perfect one of these virtues, they
pray again with thanks.
For Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is God, our father dear,
And Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
Is Man, his child and care.
He repeats the line “mercy, pity, peace, and love”
purposely to what those virtues represent, our God and
his sons and daughters when all virtues are perfected.
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
Mercy is done with the decision made in our hearts, or
our consciousness. Pity is what we express through
our facial expression or our feelings. Love is great and
doesn’t have a source, but it is something meant to be.
And Peace is
Then every man, of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine,
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace.
All men and in all hardship, we pray in agony for help
and our answer from God is to perfect all four virtues
that men must attain.
All men must love men in other forms and every men has
And all must love the human form,
a divine in them as well. So all four virtues exist in every
In heathen, Turk, or Jew;
men.
Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God isRhyme
dwellingscheme
too. is abcd but in stanza 2, “LOVE” and “LOVE” rhymes together. The tone of this poetry is
Analysis:
confidence with steady beat rhythm. This poetry has a symbolism which are the four virtues which is actually
representation of God.
A Poison Tree (1794)
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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.
Blake was angry with a friend of his, but it had settled
down. But he was angry with his enemy and his anger did
not settle. We think the enemy in this poem is temptation.
And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
His anger grew stronger with fear and his sadness through
day and night. He tried to get rid of it with deceiving smiles,
but felt guilty of it.
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 veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
Analysis:
His anger was still growing day and night. That is when he
had temptations from his enemy. And his enemy knew he
would fall for the temptation. The bright apple represents a
golden apple in the Bible.
The temptation had tempted him, but he did not fall for it
but to get past it and the temptation had gone away.
Rhyme scheme is aabb ccdd. This poetry consists of 4 stanzas with 4 lines. The tone is fast and angry
and the rhythm is mildly fast. The narrator is ambiguous. This poetry contains symbolism and one
example would be the ENEMY which represents bad outcome or temptation.
Comparison
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 The two poems don’t share an idea. In The Divine
Image Blake describes God, “our father”, as a gentle
being. This poem describes human love as something
God gives by comparing love as the human form
divine.
 In A Poison Tree Blake talks about how wrath is
dangerous if bottled up. In the poem Blake had a
more dark style being happy that his foe had died.
Significance
A poison Tree:
This poem express a way to protest the Anglican Church. This poem is heavily
based on the emotion of anger as a way to oppose the Anglican Church stifling
of anger which he believed would only increase it. The significance of this poem
to poetry is that uses allusions to bring out the meaning. This allusions are also
biblical references as it was written at a deeply religious period. In reading this
poem we learn the importance of allusion in poetry.
The Divine Image:
This poem which his belief in the divinity of human nature. Mercy, Pity, Peace,
and Love are divine attributes to which man may attain."(Songs). It states if
one attains any of these attributes, they should become divine. The importance
of this poem to poetry is its rhyme scheme. Its structure will help us use rhyme
when we write poetry.
The Wood Workshop: by Andrew Wong
The wood workshop,
goes on without a doubt.
Laboring with machines,
obviously not clean.
The wood workshop,
never comes to a stop.
With the foreman being mean,
with the workers in between.
The wood workshop,
goes on without a flop.
With injuries unforeseen,
workers obscene.
The wood workshop,
always churning out props.
It's the daily routine,
all around the clock.
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What Time Brings us: by Jacky
Time is invisible
But it brings us a lot
It brings us birth
But it brings us death
It can bring happiness
But it can also bring sadness
It can bring you to uphill
But it can also bring you to down hill
It can bring you friends
But it also brings enermy
It is unpredicable
But it is also misteries
Time is an advanture to our life
Just like we flip the pages through the book
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Billionaire: By ShinHyuk Bang
Money, money I spend
For my money there is no end
Stacks of bills next to my bed
Bag of coins near my head
I am a billionaire
Money, money I spend
Have so much I lend
To the poor I sent
Cannot walk away from. Just can’t
I am a billionaire
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Works Cited
 Bloom, Harold. William Blake. Broomall, PA:
Chelsea House, 2003.
 Scott-Kilvert, Ian. British Writers. New York:
Scribner, 1997.
 Vinson, James, and D. L. Kirkpatrick. Poets. New
York: St. Martin's, 1979.
 Gordon, Todd. Wang, Bella ed. "Songs of Innocence
and of Experience Study Guide : Summary and
Analysis of "The Poison Tree"". GradeSaver, 31 May
2011 Web. 5 June 2013.