It happens more often than you think. An artist
creates, and the world forgets about him. Then
later, his work is rediscovered and proclaimed
AMAZING…
William Blake
(1757-1827). English poet, painter, engraver and
mystic
"The Ancient of Days," Blake's vision of God
apparently using calipers like a mathematician
or scientist.
When he was ten years old, William Blake saw an angel in a
tree outside his family’s house in London. Though no one
believed him at the time, he never forgot the vision, and it
colored the rest of his life. He wrote about that angel in
poems later in life.
.
Blake’s parents were not rich,
but his dad realized the boy’s
talents. Blake secured a job as an apprentice in a print shop in
London so he could receive art instruction.
This is a picture of the house Blake was born in
on 28th Broad Street, Soho, London, England
An armed knight emerging from a gothic doorway follows a lady fleeing into the forest; possibly
Lady Macduff escaping from one of Macbeth's henchmen. Image taken from Notebook of
William Blake.
Some of Blake’s sketches in
black and white have a
foreboding tone. Blake’s
paintings were unlike the
realistic paintings of the day.
His paintings depict vivid
colors and demonstrate his
religious views; Blake tended
to blend biblical stories taught
in the Anglican church with
his self-made mythology.
William Blake lived in this residence on
Moulton Street in London from 1804-1821.
Blake’s books were called “illuminated” because
the illustrations were so miraculous. He invented
relief etching to create these amazing effects. The
process would be like trying to rubber stamp an
illustrated page of a book without having the
various colors bleed into one another.
Blake was very selective in making sure his paint
colors matched and were consistent. Artists still
are not sure how he continued to make various
prints of individual plates and get the colors
consistently correct. (For example, how would you
match colors in paint buckets without a formula
or blend cake icing the same hue every time?)
Jacob's Ladder 1800-03 William Blake (17571827/British) British Museum, London Painting
Details: 1800-03 - watercolor
This is a copy from
Blake’s composition
book. Remember
your English teachers
tell you about 80%
of a professional
author’s time is spent
revising and editing?
Look at the revisions
Blake makes. His
doodles seem to
enhance his thoughts.
You may wish to try a
similar approach in
your composition
journals…jot a little,
doodle a little. It’s
your book; create.
Here are more doodles
from Blake’s
composition notebook.
Maybe you should save
your composition book
in the event you
become famous, also!
The most notable feature of the poetry in Blake’s time is the new role of
individual thought and personal feeling. While most poetics wrote about
general society and the conveyance of “truth,” the Romantics found the
source of poetry in the particular, unique experience.
Blake wrote poems about the
suffering of children -- like the
child chimney sweepers lost in
England’s grimy flues -- and about
children playing on village greens,
children who remain innocent,
forgiving, and accepting despite the
visible horrors going on around
them and inflicted upon them by
the adult world.
Blake often illustrated for his friends’
books. This is entitled Inscription
Over the Gate of Hell to illustrate
Dante’s poem. What tone do you
think Blake had towards hell? What is
the mood of the piece?
Blake attacked the hypocrisies of the age
and the cruelties of rulers and tyrants
towards their subjects. As the ideals of the
Revolution were not likely to be realized in
his time, he tried to revise his
contemporaries’ view of the universe and to
construct a new mythology centered not in
the God of the Bible but in Urizen, a
repressive figure of reason and law whom
he believed to be the deity actually
worshipped by his
contemporaries. Hmmm…here is a picture
from his book about Urizen.
• Blake and his wife, Caroline,
printed, colored, and bound these
remarkable books themselves for
friends and subscribers. Blake died
in 1827, still in poverty,
unrecognized, consigned to a public
grave.
If you want to see more of Blake’s work, go to this site:
http://www.blakearchive.org/. Now let’s analyze and enjoy one of his
poems.
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 watered 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 veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
A Poison Tree
In this poem, a central metaphor explains a truth of human nature. ”A Poison Tree” shares the image of a tree as it
grows; all of these Songs of Experience show the dark side of human nature. ”A Poison Tree” tells how anger can be
dispelled by goodwill or nurtured to become a deadly poison. It is appropriate that poems touching on Biblical
themes should be parables (a story that tells one lesson), not unlike those of Jesus
.
The opening stanza is among the most deceptively simple and memorable of all Blake's lyrics: the form of each couplet
is grammatically the same, but substituting four words wholly alters the meaning, from the ending of anger with the
"friend" to the continuing anger with the "foe".
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Blake does not tell us what is growing (although we may guess this to be the tree of the title) but it is evidently a
plant of some kind: the real "fears" and "tears" are what metaphorically water the plant (encourage his hatred?),
and "smiles" and "deceitful wiles" are as the sunshine which makes it grow: the reader at once grasps the simple
natural metaphor, and the deep psychological truth it expresses. At length the tree grows to bear a single fruit,
which the "foe" wants because he supposes the speaker to value it: "And he knew that it was mine".
The sequel is shocking: the foe steals the apple and eats it, not knowing that it is poisonous: "In the morning
glad I see/My foe outstretched beneath the tree". As we remember that this is a metaphor we realize that literal
murder (of the body) is not what Blake describes but some profound spiritual, or (as we would now say)
psychological harm is meant.
This is a horrible poem because it depicts with appalling honesty the hatred of which man is capable and the
cunning with which we can conceal our anger. The anger depicted here is not the anger we call the heat of the
moment, but "wrath", one of the seven deadly sins, a brooding, festering desire to get even at all costs.
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/poetry/blake.htm
The apple of the third stanza reminds us of the story of Adam and Eve. In the biblical account, God
forbids the couple to eat the fruit of "the tree of knowledge", but this fruit is commonly represented as
an apple (this detail appears in mediaeval carols and in Milton's poem, Paradise Lost).
Another apple which caused trouble was the golden apple from the garden of the Hesperides, which
Paris, prince of Troy, gave to Aphrodite, goddess of love, in preference to Athena and Hera. As a
symbol of irresistible temptation, the apple is deeply convincing.
The enemy is almost as wily as the speaker, waiting until a night which has "veiled the pole." This "pole"
could mean simply the hemisphere which surrounds the pole or, some critics suggest, the Pole Star: a
very bright star used for navigation; if this is what Blake means then a night which "veiled the pole"
(with fog, say) would be exceptionally black. The metaphor suggests the darkness, the inscrutable
mystery of evil: we cannot see it at work, but we can see its results later. Wow!
Perhaps, though, the most shocking word in the poem is "glad." This is not the innocent gladness of a
clear conscience, but the almost diabolical self-satisfaction of the poisoner. The triumphal gloating is
miles away from the simple reconciliation of the poem's opening couplet. The poem perfectly unites the
simple extended image, and the deep human truth it illustrates.
Language and tone
*The obsessional nature of the speaker's feelings is suggested by the restrictions in the diction. The first stanza
works purely in terms of ‘friend' ‘foe' ‘angry' and ‘wrath'. Each line begins with ‘I', suggesting also the speaker's
obsession with himself. In the remaining stanzas, key words continue to be ‘I' ‘my' and ‘mine'. The foe is given no
name; what is important is his relationship to the speaker.
*The negativity of the speaker is implied in stanza two. His only true emotions are fears and tears. All that is
positive is false – the sun of smiles, and the softness of deceit.
*Concealment is achieved through the language, as we do not see what is growing until the apple appears. It
suggests that the nature of what is being nurtured is only apparent when it is fully developed, even to the one who
nurtures it.
Try re-reading the poem in the third person (substituting s/he and his/her, for I and my etc.)
In the light of that, do you think that the emphasis on ‘I' ‘my' and ‘mine' makes a significant contribution to the
meaning and tone of the poem?
Structure and versification
The stanzas are rhymed closed couplets. The poem proceeds by this series of closed statements which allow no
argument and echo the blinkered vision of the speaker. Each stanza after the opening one begins with ‘And', as do
many of the lines. The trochaic metre of stanzas two, three and four emphasizes this word, thus increasing the
obsessive drive of the poem. We are invited to follow the logical progression of the speaker's behavior to its
climax. We are also encouraged, therefore, to see it as inevitable.
When the meter alters to iambic (short/long), in l.2, 4 and the final line, there is a sense of the forward momentum
decelerating (slowing down), as the situation is summed up. The regularity of the tetrameter is only broken once
with the omitted syllable in l.7 before ‘smiles', which has the effect of ‘wrong footing' the reader, just as the smiles
themselves are designed to trip up the speaker's enemy. The sibilants of the second stanza also indicates the
presence of lurking evil.
Investigating structure and versification
Make notes on the ways in which the speaker comes across as a child and also as very adult.
To see eight of the poems in Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” pages, go to
http://bq.blakearchive.org/bonus.essick. Perhaps you may wish to create graphics/art to
accompany the poetry you create?
This is a Upas tree known to be poisoness. However, we should recall “ Poison Tree’s”
original title—“Christian Forbearance”—gives no indication that the foe is laid low by
poisonous fruit. Furthermore, in neither version are we actually told that the foe eats the
apple; the exact means of his destruction are in any event obscure. All we know for
certain is that he is tempted by the tree’s exterior appearance (particularly its bright fruit)
and winds up “outstretchd beneath the tree” as a result of approaching it. On the other
hand, the apple does seem central to the mechanics of the poem, albeit absent from
Blake’s illustrations of the tree. Hmmm…
If you are really into Blake, go to this link:
http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/main.html
Annotation Notes: write
the following slides in your
book
Title: Poison reveals death, evil; it is usually given to someone in order to kill them. Tree reveals growth,
nurture, or a picture of decay. Evil is being harvested on a tree.
Paraphrase: I was angry with my friend but when I told him my anger ended. Yet when I was angry with my
enemy, I held it in and my grudge grew. I watered it with fears and anguish while my cunning façade
provided the tree with sun. My anger grew until it produced an offspring that my enemy became jealous
of. My enemy came into the garden during the blackness of the night and plucked off the apple that
killed him to my delight.
Devices: Cadence-musical, euphonious
Couplet-enhances the flow of the poem, each couplet contrasts the idea of the previous couplet
Euphemism-“foe outstretched beneath the tree” is a lighter way of revealing the death of the enemy.
Foreshadowing-“and he knew that it was mine”; from our human nature the audience can derive that the
enemy will steal the apple which has already been displayed as poisonous; the line “night had veiled the
pole” intensifies the darkness and evil nature of the situation.
Imagery-the bearing of fruit through providing nutrients, parallels the concept of a grudge being fed
Allusion-the apple alludes to the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge which was eaten and led to
the fall of man; from that the evil nature of mankind prospered
Symbolism- an apple typically refers to the desire and temptations of humans
Shifts:
There is a shift after each couplet. The first shows the familiarity with friends and the ability to
forgive. The second portrays the frustration that grows when it is towards an enemy. The third and
fourth couplets are used to display the ways in which the tree of emotions is provided with nutrients.
The fifth reveals how a grudge, when concealed within, grows rapidly. The sixth helps the audience
to understand the jealous nature of humans through the foe’s desire of the apple. The seventh couplet
helps portray the evil shadows that lurk over humans, and finally the last couplet reveals the innate
nature of humans and their self-centered lifestyle because there is no remorse for the death of his foe.
Title:
This tree revolves around one person’s emotions and because poison is used to describe this specific
tree Blake reveals the hatred that mankind is able to produce.
Theme/Total Meaning:
Because this poem does not have evidence of remorse the poem does not paint a
lesson of releasing anger (although people will come to that conclusion by themselves).
Blake wrote this poem to reveal the deep truth about human’s and the ability to harbor
wrath and fester desires to an incredible extent. Also, because he has a dark atmosphere
around the death of the foe, he reveals the mystery of evil and how it influences humans.
A symbol is any object or action that represents something beyond itself. A rose, for example can
represent beauty or love. A tree may represent a family’s roots and branches. A soaring bird may
represent freedom. Light might symbolize hope or knowledge or life.
1. What does the "apple" symbolize in Blake’s poem “A Poison Tree”, and why does the apple kill
the foe?
2. Why does the foe try to steal the apple?
The Tyger
by William Blake
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
When the stars threw down their
spears
And water'd heaven with their
tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make
thee?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
Here is his draft of “The Tyger,”
edits and all. He probably made
more than one draft. You can see
this in the British Library.
• http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/englit/blake/la
rge17449.html
• http://crossref-it.info/textguide/songs-of-innocenceand-experience/13/1618
• http://quest.eb.com/#/search/william-blake-a-poisontree
• http://quest.eb.com/#/search/williamblake/2/113_915985/William-Blake-s-The-Book-ofUrizen
• http://www.worldandischool.com/subscribers/searchdet
ail.asp?num=26897