also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”” (New American Standard Bible, Gen. 3:22). The poem “A Poison Tree” by William Blake completes a full circle around the story of the fall of man in the book of Genesis incorporating how the human nature functions. Blake uses metaphors, allusions and diction to tell his views on the subject of human nature and God, and conveys his message more clearly through the rhyme scheme, meter and simplicity of the poem overall. “A Poison Tree” is showing
A Poison Tree by William Blake is metaphorically describing the idea of life and the natural way humans live and choose to experience it. The poem describes the wrath of anger which can be dispersed by kindness or become a lethal poison if continued to be nurtured within oneself. The theme of the poem is an appropriate reference to the biblical theme of Adam and Eve. The opening stanza organizes everything from expressing the anger to the “friend” to the withholding the anger from the “foe”. Blake
assigned poem is entitled A Poison Tree, by William Blake. The poem begins as such: angry with an enemy, the speaker stealthily plots the perfect revenge. He completely hides his motives as his plan grows and matures into an item of lust for the foe. Unable to contain his desires, the foe, under the cover of night seeks the item. The next morning the speaker finds his foe vulnerable and anticipating his arrival. Before delving any deeper into this poem and its meaning, a few basic questions must
previous age. The attempt to create poetry as a "'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings'" was the goal of many of the main poets (Perkins 9). This was exemplified by the poet Keats when he said, "'if Poetry comes not as naturally as the Leaves to a tree it had better not come at all'" (Perkins 13). These are some of the broad ideals of the writers, though not all embraced these ideals themselves. Yet inside of these standards was the content which was altered greatly from that of the Augustans
Coleridge’s use of language and form contribute to the message conveyed in the text. The form fluctuates throughout the text by use of different rhyme schemes, loose meter, and stanzas in length varying four to nine lines. The variety of form could be representative the array of interpretations of this text. Coleridge conveys profound religious meaning by using symbolic language with interpretive representations. Although his use of elevated language possibly narrowed the audience, that could have
Despite a man’s corpse hanging from a tree, the allusion to a minstrel song used to rally for the postbellum south, was more sympathetic to a population that is unaffected by lynching. Hughes’ poem “Silhouette” has an ambiguous speaker; given the subject matter and his other applications of