A Poison Tree Critical Analysis

“A Poison Tree” by William Blake is written as a part of the Songs of Experience in the “Songs of Innocence and Experience” published in 1794. William Blake is an English poet born in 1757 in London. He was a poet and a painter. Songs of Experience is one of the most important Blake’s works along with Songs of Innocence. These Blake’s works are interesting from the painter’s perspective too, as he not only wrote the poems but made paintings along with them. In his works he developed an extensive mythology that he uses to connect his works. The “A Poison Tree” itself is very easy to read, without highly complex and hidden messages. The author describes how to deal with anger and describes how dealing incorrectly can lead to stronger feelings

An interesting fact is that the author does not state how the enemy was killed or why is he dead. Linda Ranieri in her “Explication of William Blake’s ‘The Poison Tree’” argues that the author does not mention it because he realizes that what he done is not morally right. He does not mention the reason of anger for the same reason. Neil Heims offers a similar explanation of the poem too, although in his “Critical Essay on ‘A Poison Tree’” offers a much deeper analysis of the poem within the context of author’s other works, especially “The Human Abstract.” The author claims that the symbols in these two poems together reference and symbol the story of genesis from the Old Testament of the Bible. A stanza in “The Human Abstract” also references the tree from the Bible, but in another sense — a tree that is in the human brain which can be connected to this poem to argue that the wrath is developed in mind, as a consequence of overthinking and not reacting early enough. Interesting fact about “The Human Abstract” is that it can be used as a complement to not only “A Poison Tree” but other Blake’s works too.