Reflections after reading "The Poison Tree Blake"

I am angry with my friends,

I speak to Pan, and the anger is gone;

I am angry with my enemies,

I remained silent, my anger growing.

I harbor doubts and fears, morning and evening,

I water them with my tears;

I carry deceit with me

Shine it with false sunshine.

So it kept growing day and night,

and it produced an apple that glowed red.

My enemies saw it so red,

So he took advantage of the darkness to cover the sky,

and sneaked into my garden quietly.

At daybreak, I saw it and felt happy in my heart;

My enemy fell dead under the tree.

(Translated by Fei Bai)

Appreciation

"The Poison Tree" and "The Sick Rose" both come from "Songs of Innocence and Experience" by Blake. "Song", these two poems are often compared, both use concrete natural plants as images to depict abstract human sins. "The Sick Rose" depicts jealousy, while "The Poison Tree" is about the destruction caused by "repressed anger." In contrast, "The Poison Tree" has a profound Western religious background. Without understanding this background, one cannot truly understand the theme of the poem.

The poem "Poison Tree" adopts the poetic rhythm of tetrameter (mixed with trimeter) iambic and double-line rhyme. This format is often used in nursery rhymes or Christian hymns. The name "poison tree" does not mean "poisonous tree", but, like "latex tree", means "a tree cultivated to extract poisons". The poem depicts "my" anger turning into a tree. The so-called self-control and forbearance are all hypocrisy. "False sunshine" and "my tears" "illuminate" and "water" the tree, just for the final harvest. Bring forth poisonous apples to poison my enemies. The theme of this poem is not anger itself, but the suppression of anger, which indirectly targets the Christian theory of forbearance. Blake believed that this kind of forbearance suppressed human nature and would actually bring greater disasters. In fact, the original title of the hymn was "Christian Self-Control," which was later changed to "The Poisonous Tree."

One of the most important images in the poem is the apples on the poisonous tree. What special symbolic meaning does this apple have? Many Western readers will first think of the "apple of discord" in Homer's epic poem that provoked the war between the gods. Going one step further, one would think of the biblical legend about the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The forbidden fruit is the apple, which is also a symbol of human original sin in Christianity. The root of original sin in the poem is human free will in the Bible, but in the poem it is human suppression of negative emotions. William Blake's use of religious imagery was rebellious and playful.

"The Poison Tree" uses strange metaphors such as the "tree" and "apple" of anger, which are closely connected with religious allusions, causing profound associations and forming multiple thoughts: on the one hand, it combines the suppressed pain and disaster of human nature , expressed with extremely rational writing and a plot that lacks logic; on the other hand, it also uses Christian admonitions, either explicitly or implicitly, to remind readers to reflect on their own positions. This kind of multiple thinking forms a counterpoint between emotional and moral analysis, giving the poem great shocking and critical power.

(Liu Yunyan)