The Serpent Inside of Us
Human beings, along with the ability to reason and question, possess the capacity to hate, and yet also to forgive. Unfortunately, forgiving someone is not always as easy as holding a grudge against them, and this lack of control over one's actions is inherent to human disposition. In many of his poems, William Blake critically observes human nature and its different aspects, but in "A Poison Tree", he specifically discusses human weakness and the effects of humans' inherent flaws. Through the use of extended metaphors and vivid imagery, he compares two opposing forces in human beings. In "A Poison Tree", William Blake uncovers the inherent weakness in humans by symbolically portraying characteristics of good and evil. The first stanza introduces a comparison between a friend and a foe through clever parallelism. Blake begins his poem by writing "I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath, my wrath did end" (1-2). He continues to say "I was angry with my foe: / I told it not, my wrath did grow" (3-4). The similarity of lines 1-2 and 3-4 acts as a parallel comparison, with the first part depicting forgiveness, and the second part portraying wrath. The parallelism makes the two opposites stronger, for it emphasizes t
Obviously, Blake's foe ate the apple from the poison tree, and therefore perished. The tree of which Blake speaks of is most likely a reference to the biblical Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, which enabled the person who ate from it to discern good from evil. The "serpent" in Blake is his weakness, and just like he, all humans have this inherent flaw inside of them. he differences between them: letting go of his wrath and it ending, as opposed to suppressing his anger and it growing. Blake, a victim to human emotions, cannot help but feel happy about his enemy's destruction. By this, Blake alludes to his foe's jealousy (another aspect of human weakness), which will drive him to take the apple. One side of him is able to forgive, but the other side is not, and this weakness takes over and affects his judgment. The main difference in Blake's relationship with his friend and his foe is that he can control his anger in his friend's case, but shows no sign of forgiving his enemy. Thus it is also tempting to his enemy, and Blake continues by saying "he knew that it was mine" (12). Again, Blake makes a reference to the Bible, in which Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge, leading to their demise. In the next stanza, Blake continues the symbolism of the apple tree, which he "waterd . Lines 9-12 contain the highpoint of Blake's hatred, namely "an apple bright" (10), which is clearly the manifestation of his wrath. All the fear and deceit that Blake was living in helped grow this apple, which is as poisonous as the hatred that he held. with smiles, / and with soft deceitful wiles" (7-8).
Common topics in this essay:
William Blake,
Garden Eden,
Tree Knowledge,
,
Poison Tree,
Obviously Blake's,
Adam Eve's,
poison tree,
human weakness,
friend foe,
Adam Eve,
weakness humans,
tree knowledge,
william blake,
Tree William,
poison tree william,
inherent weakness,
evil stanza,
stanza introduces,
inherent weakness humans,
tree william,
night morning tears,
/ told wrath,
tree william blake,
|
Acceptance Essays
