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
In the next stanza, Blake continues the symbolism of the apple tree, which he "waterd ... in fears, / night & morning with my tears" (5-6) and "sunned ... with smiles, / and with soft deceitful wiles" (7-8). Blake nourishes his anger with fear and dishonesty, for not only does he let it drive him crazy internally ("night & morning with my tears" [6]), but he covers it up with "smiles" (7) and "deceitful wiles" (8) as well. His foe, therefore, is oblivious to the hatred that exists between them. 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. Blake gives a similar look at good and evil in the first stanza, when he introduces his friend and his foe (Blake's good and evil sides, respectively). Using evidence from later on in the poem, one notices that Blake acts as the serpent, tempting his foe with an apple. Unlike the serpent, however, Blake shows signs of a good conscience, for although the apple eventually destroys his foe, Blake does not knowingly plan for this. Rather, he lives in fear, specifically fear of his actions, which would produce the "poison tree". In "A Poison Tree", William Blake exposes the inherent weakness in humans by symbolically revealing characteristics of good and evil. In describing his relationship with a fri
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 937
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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