Page 278 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

Unit 26: William Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience

of Love” and “The Human Abstract.” In the three poems, Blake criticizes the imposition of religious Notes
and social morality on the human sensibility, suggesting that it stifles the goodness and love inherent
in a spirit not fettered by such rules. In Blake’s Notebook, the original title of “A Poison Tree” is
“Christian Forbearance,” which the poem criticizes as the cause of hypocrisy.

Analysis

Stanza 1
William Blake speaks of someone, his friend and his foe, whom has he is angry with.
When he says ‘I told my wrath, my wrath did end’ after he said he was angry with his friend, he is
saying he was able to get over being angry with his friend and forgot about it. Although, it is quite
the opposite when he mentions’ I told it not, and my wrath did grow’. Blake is saying that with his
enemy, he allowed himself to get angry, and therefore, his wrath did grow.

Stanza 2
In this stanza, Blake begins to make his anger grow and he takes pleasure in it, comparing his anger
with something, in this case, a tree or plant. The speaker says he ‘sunned it with smiles’ and ‘and
with soft, deceitful wiles’. This means he is creating an illusion with his enemy saying he is pretending
to be friendly to seduce and bring him closer.

Stanza 3
‘And it grew both day and night’ and ‘til it bore an apple bright’ are meaning that his illusion with
his enemy is growing and growing until it became a strong and tempting thing. His illusion has a
metaphor and it is an apple. After, his foe believes it shines, which means he thinks it’s true and
means something, and takes Blake illusion seriously. ‘And he knew it was mine’ suggests that he
really thinks Blake is his friend.

Stanza 4
Being the last stanza, Blake needed to come up with a conclusion. He has used the two lines ‘in the
morning glad I see’ and ‘my foe outstretched beneath the tree’ to say that his foe finally fell to his
tempting illusion and metaphorically, consumed his poison apple and died. So, obviously, his
malicious intentions were hidden behind illusion and he prevailed over his enemy.

26.3.2 The Tyger

Text
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
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?

And what shoulder, & what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 271