18 pages • 36 minutes read
William BlakeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The apple in the poem serves as a metaphorical representation of the physical manifestation of the speaker’s wrath. The extended metaphor begins in the second stanza with references to the planted seed of anger being “watered” (Line 5) and “sunned” (Line 7). In the third stanza, the anger grows and blossoms into a deadly fruit. Not only does the extended metaphor serve as a symbol and biblical reference, but it helps to make the speaker’s anger more relatable and tangible for the reader. If Blake had not grounded the speaker’s anger in a physical, solid object and in the metaphor of gardening/growing, the feeling of anger may have remained too abstract or incomprehensible for the audience. However, by grounding this intangible emotion into a physical vessel, readers are able to more aptly “see” it and its effects.
“A Poison Tree” consists of four stanzas of four lines each. This neat, simplistic construction is further broken down into two couplets in each stanza. These couplets all end with masculine rhyme meaning that the lines rhyme with either a similar single syllable or final stress.
By William Blake
Auguries of Innocence
Auguries of Innocence
William Blake
London
London
William Blake
Night
Night
William Blake
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
William Blake
The Book of Thel
The Book of Thel
William Blake
The Chimney Sweeper
The Chimney Sweeper
William Blake
The Garden of Love
The Garden of Love
William Blake
The Lamb
The Lamb
William Blake
The Little Boy Found
The Little Boy Found
William Blake
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
William Blake
The Sick Rose
The Sick Rose
William Blake
The Tyger
The Tyger
William Blake