Weekly ELA Blog Week of 10/3

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 veiled the pole; 

In the morning glad I see; 

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

"The Poison Tree" by William Blake is from the Romantic Era of poetry, which has a few central characteristics. The first is the common themes of emotion and imagination. This is reflected in the poem, as the main topic is anger, an emotion, and it stems from the imaginative idea of a tree sprouting from anger. The next characteristic is use of common or simple subjects as well as just vocabulary in general. That fits, as the main symbol in this poem is just an apple tree, and though it's a little odd for us in the twenty first century, the vocabulary of the poem is still noticeably pretty basic. The final characteristic I'll mention is that poems from the Romantic Era are often strongly opinionated and one sided. "The Poison Tree" clearly shows this, as the speaker clearly hates the foe and is glad to see him harmed by the poison apple.