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Messages and Moral Values - A Poison Tree Poem

Do not suppress negative feelings

- We must resolve the issue if we have negative feelings like anger.
- Remaining silent about our anger only makes us bitter and even evil.
- Suppressed anger is dangerous as it can have a destructive effect on society.


Moral Values

·                     Truthfulness

·                     Forgiveness

·                     Rationality

·                     Moderation

Themes

·                     Suppressing anger 

Anger should be addressed because it can lead to destructive consequences for both the angry person and his victim.

·                     Importance of communication

Communication is important in any relationship, more so if one cannot get along with someone or has a grudge.

·                     Deception and self-deception

People are often deceived by outward appearances.

·                     Patience, self-restraint and moderation

The persona does not portrays patience as he refuse to make peace with his enemy by talking about his anger. 

A Poison Tree Poem - Meaning by stanza

Stanza 1

·                     The persona is angry at his friend and talks it out. His anger dissipated and they continue the friendship. 

·                     However, when he is angry with his enemy, he keeps quiet. Then, his anger grows even more within him.

Stanza 2

·                     He lets his anger grows day and night. He acts in deceitful ways toward his enemy.

Stanza 3

·                     The poison tree of anger eventually bears fruit which is an 'apple bright'.

·                     The enemy knows it belongs to the persona.

·                     The apple is very attractive to the enemy.

Stanza 4

·                     The apple is attractive and lures the enemy who sneaks into the persona's garden at night.

·                     At night, the 'pole star' is hidden and cannot protect the enemy from the danger of the 'apple bright'.

·                     The 'pole star' is the North Star or Polaris, a bright star permanently in the sky still used by navigators to avoid dangers while travelling. 

·                     The enemy eats the apple and is poisoned.

·                     The persona is satisfied.

A Poison Tree – William Blake

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

MEANING OF DIFFICULT WORDS

1. Wrath – strong, stern, or fierce anger; deeply resentful indignation; ire.
2. Deceit – distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud; cheating
3. Wiles – Trick, trap
4. Veiled – conceal, lacking clarity or distinctness

POETIC/LITERARY DEVICES

1. Personification

–       Waters the wrath with fear

–        I told my wrath, my wrath did end

2. Metaphor 

-The tree is considered as a wrath/anger

-“Till it bore an apple bright”, the apple is a metaphor for the “fruit” of his grudge.

3. Alliteration 

-sunned and smiles

-friend and foe

-bore and bright

4. Imagery

– Throughout the poem

5. Irony

-the foe beneath the tree of hatred

6. Repetition

-“I was angry with my friend… I was angry with my foe”

7. Allusion

-“Garden.. apple…tree” alludes to Adam & Eve, the Garden of Eden.

STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS

Stanza 1: The persona speaks of someone, his friend and his foe, whom he is angry with. When he says ‘I told my wrath, my wrath did end’ after he said he was angry with his friend, he is saying he was able to get over being angry with his friend and forgot about it. Although, it is quite the opposite when he mentions’ I told it not, and my wrath did grow’. The persona is saying that with his enemy, he allows himself to get angry, and therefore, his wrath does grow.

Stanza 2: In this stanza, the persona begins to make his anger grow and he takes pleasure in it, comparing his anger with something, in this case, a tree or plant. The speaker says he ‘sunned it with smiles’ and ‘and with soft, deceitful wiles’. This means he is creating an illusion with his enemy saying he is pretending to be friendly to seduce and bring him closer.

Stanza 3: ‘And it grew both day and night’ and ‘til it bore an apple bright’ are meaning that his illusion with his enemy is growing and growing until it became a strong and tempting thing. His illusion has a metaphor and it is an apple. After, his foe believes it shines, which means he thinks it’s true and means something, and takes the persona’s illusion seriously. ‘And he knew it was mine’ suggests that he really thinks the persona is his friend.

Stanza 4: Being the last stanza, the persona needed to come up with a conclusion. He has used the two lines ‘in the morning glad I see’ and ‘my foe outstretched beneath the tree’ to say that his foe finally fell to his tempting illusion and metaphorically, consumed his poison apple and died. So, obviously, his malicious intentions were hidden behind illusion and he prevailed over his enemy.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

In the first stanza, the consequence of allowing anger to continue instead of stopping it as it begins is shown. This consequence is simply that it will continue to grow. However, as the poem progresses, it is seen that this continued growth of anger can yield harmful results as the enemy, or foe, is lured toward the tree and eats of its fruit, the poison apple. This kills his foe, as he is seen outstretched beneath the tree, a sight the speaker is glad to see the next morning. These final two lines explain one of the main themes of the poem, which is that anger leads to self-destruction. The speaker’s anger grows and eventually becomes so powerful that it has changes from simple anger with another person, to desire to see them dead. One of the subjects of the persona’s work was the underworld, or Hell, and knowing this, it can be seen that the destruction which results from anger is not physical, but spiritual. In addition, the death of the foe, which the speaker is glad to see, does not spiritually affect the foe as the speaker is affected, but only physically harms the foe.

A POISON TREE by William Blake

Themes

·                  Anger, revenge and deadth

·                  Insincerity and deceit

·                  The danger of holding back one's feeling

·                  Bad feelings like anger among friends and rivals

·                  Keeping anger and its destructive consequences bottled up

Moral Values / Lessons

·                   We should not allow anger to control our life

·                  We should express our feelings in a healthy way not bottle them up

·                  We should make peace with everyone,friend and foe

·                  We should be sincere even with our rivals

Literary Devices                                                                       

·                  Imagery - Stanza 2 gives a good image of a tree being well taken care of

·                  Symbol - The tree is asymbol of life and anger seems to have been given life to grow

·                  Personification - 'the night has veiled the pole' means night has been personified as a person putting veil or cover on the pole or light

·                  Diction - 'my wrath did grow' , 'my foe beheld it shine' , 'into my garden stole' 

·                  Metaphor - The tree of anger like an apple tree stars bearing fruit

·                  Irony - it is ironical that anger is a tree  albeit a poison tree; that is, a negative thing growing into something positive

·                  Simile - 'sunned it with smiles and with soft deceitful wiles ' means the smiles and wiles are like the sunlight

·                  Repetition - The word 'wrath' is repeated in stanza 1  for emphasis that anger is poisonous

Novel Sing To The Dawn (Form 5) : Chapter Summaries

CHAPTER	SUMMARY
1	Dawan (14 years old) and Kwai(13 years old) spent the morning talking about the scholarship to study in a city school. Kwai was quite hopeful and Dawan felt that she would not get the scholarship because she was a girl. Their parents thought that it was foolish and wasteful to send girls to school.
2	The teacher asked his students what they saw beneath their houses in the morning. He had a long discussion with the students about the landlord taking away sacks of rice beneath their houses. The headmaster headed to their class and listened to the discussion before going off. The teacher and students discussed what they should do if they won the scholarship. The teacher announced that Dawan won the scholarship.
3	The classmates surrounded Dawan as soon as they heard that she won the scholarship. Kwai was unhappy and upset that Dawan won the scholarship, not him. Dawan told her family that she got the scholarship and that made her father angry. He accused Dawan of taking her own brother's chance away from him. Dawan’s mother was reluctant to give her opinion (being scared and loyal to her husband). Dawan's grandmother however supported her. Dawan and her grandmother planned to go to Noi's house. However, halfway there, Dawan's mother decided to go with Dawan instead of her grandmother - her grandmother was too old and it was a long journey (3 kilometres) to walk under the hot sun.
4	The conversation at Noi’s house - Dawan’s mother, Noi (Dawan’s cousin, 5-6 years older than her, married and had a small baby) and Ghan (Noi’s husband). Noi said that going to the city was useless, not good and not healthy. She went to the city to work, not to study but had to come back home because the city was an ugly and cruel place to work. Ghan worked in the city as part of a work crew. Noi and Ghan tried to discourage Dawan from going to the city because it would bring more harm than good. Mr Phaspras (Army officer) made a deal with Noi's family in order not to take Ghan into the army (Noi and Ghan had to pay him a lot of money) After listening to what Noi and Ghan said, Dawan was still determined to go to the city.
5	Kwai was upset when he knew that Dawan and their mother went to see Noi and Ghan. Kwai and Dawan argued over the issue of winning the scholarship. Kwai came in second in the examination but he was hoping to go to the city. At the same time, Kwai was scared of telling their father his result because Dawan might not be allowed to go. He was in a confused state.
6	Dawan's father was very unapproachable. He did not want her to go to the city. He thought that boys going to the city to study would be better than girls. Kwai was hopeful after he heard that. Dawan’s father would not listen to her reasons. She decided to see the gentle old monk of the village temple. Maybe he could influence her father to change his mind.
7	Dawan went to the busy and crowded market place alone early in the morning because she wanted to meet the monk at the temple. She met a girl, Bao who sold lotus buds and caged sparrows. Dawan wanted to buy a lotus bud but Bao gave it for free to her. She also wanted to free a caged bird to make merit but she did not have enough money (only ten cents). From their conversation, Dawan found out that Bao was Vichai’s sister (Dawan’s classmate – the boy who sat behind her in class).
8	Dawan went to see the old monk/head monk/elderly abbot in the temple. They talked in the open courtyard outside the temple. Dawan's teacher and the old monk were good friends, so he already told the monk about Dawan’s scholarship. Dawan pleaded with the monk so that he could persuade her father to let her go to study in the city (her father respected the monk and would listen to what he said). The old monk did not see the need for Dawan to go to the city school. He refused to help her because he did not believe in the idea of girls furthering their studies. He talked much about the Holy One’s teaching and Heaven. Dawan ran off in bitterness and tears.
9	Bao allowed Dawan to release a bird for free. Bao's brother, Vichai, came to the market stall and hit her because of that. Kwai stopped Vichai from hitting Bao. After realising that Bao knew about what happened between Dawan and Kwai, Kwai wanted to slap Bao. Bao accused of both Vichai and Kwai as big bullies. Kwai pushed Dawan away when she tried to stop him from hitting Bao. Dawan landed on top of a pile of broken birdcages, injuring herself. Cousin Noi helped Dawan with her bleeding ankle. Dawan limped off alone to return home.
10	In the heavy rain, Dawan went to the river to sit on the old bridge but Kwai was already there. Kwai was thinking about Dawan's words (about him being a bully). The siblings talked about what happened and expressed their feelings about the whole issue. Kwai realised that Dawan was a caring sister and he finally made his decision. Both of them returned home together.
11	On their way home in the heavy rain, they saw their father leading the buffalo home (which Kwai forgot to do). They decided to hide from him because he looked angry but later they approached him. Their father heard from the teacher that Kwai got second in the test and was angry at him for not telling him about it. Back at home, their grandmother tried to comfort the scared Dawan. Father had a good and serious discussion with Kwai and Dawan about the scholarship. Father was very reluctant to let Dawan go to the city school but Dawan and Kwai managed to convince him. He finally allowed Dawan to go. Kwai was both happy and sad at the same time about their father’s decision.
12	Dawan’s last morning at home. At dawn, she went to the top of the old wooden bridge and saw that Kwai was already there. The siblings talked about Dawan’s leaving the village. Kwai would miss Dawan because  no one would be there to watch the sunrise with him. He cried and ran off. Dawan started singing her morning song one last time before going home to get ready to go to the city.
13	At first Dawan was unsure if she wanted to leave because she would miss everything and everyone in her village. Her grandmother gave her a lot of advice and encouragement to persuade her to go. She gave Dawan a glass jar of lotus bud. When she was boarding the bus to go to the city, Kwai was nowhere to be seen. Although many people in the village sent her off, she was not happy as Kwai was not there. During the bus journey, she saw Kwai on the bridge that they usually went to, he was waving goodbye at her, singing their favourite morning song, which she continued singing until she could not see him anymore.