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 the differences between them: letting go of his wrath and it ending, as opposed to suppressing his anger and it growing. This is the first point of human weakness that Blake conveys. 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. Therefore, he plants the seed of hatred, which, observing from the title, grows into "a poison tree".
             In the next stanza, Blake continues the symbolism of the apple tree, which he &...