The poem I chose to analyze is called A Poison Tree, written in 1794 by William Blake, a well-known 18th and 19th century poet. I chose this poem because I thought it was interesting and challenging to figure out exactly how I interpreted the poem by trying to figure out exactly what Blake was trying to say. By taking the time to come up with my own interpretation, I recognized the not-so-obvious details that Blake incorporated in his poem.
Blake starts out by saying one of two things. On one hand, he could be pointing out the difference between being angry with a friend and making his anger known so it does not continue, and being angry with an enemy, but holding his anger inside only to let it continue to grow. On the other hand, it's quite possible that when Blake speaks of this anger, he intends for it to mean anger towards separate enemy-like and friend-like traits he sees within one particular person and how the way in which he deals with his anger affects him.
Blake continues by describing his rising anger with the use of metaphors which also cleverly pertain to the tree analogy he uses throughout the poem. By saying that he "water"d it [his anger] in fears and sunned it with smiles,"( lines 5,7) Blake, obviously not meaning these in a literal sense, implied that this person was using his other emotions to contribute to the growth of his anger, as would water and sun do to a tree.
Blake goes on to set up not only an analogy to describe the intensity of the anger, but he also incorporates the use of allusion. The mention of the apple refers to the meaning an apple holds in the biblical story of Adam and Eve. In this story, the apple symbolized temptation, as it does in this poem. At the peak of his anger, it was temptation that ultimately contributed to the death of the person he was angry at, as we find out at the end of the poem, where the word "outstretch"d" clearly gives the illusion of the body of this person lying dead beneath the tree.
