“A Poison Tree”, Social and religious hypocrisy as an unstoppable plague

William Blake’s ‘A Poison Tree’

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 veild the pole;

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretched beneath the tree. (8)

Introduction

Blake’s poem can be read from different points of view. The main idea that we come up with after reading the poem for the first time is the one of the repression of our feelings (especially the negative ones) and how this could became something completely out of control. We may be able to handle it for some time, but when our wrath and hatred is not expressed during a long time towards someone, all that feelings will explode and be released in some dangerous way. (6), (5)

After a more in depth reading we can observe how the poem can be interpreted from two main ways. First, we can analyze the poem from a religious point of view, where Christianity is criticized for its hypocrisy, especially in the idea of forgiveness and vengeance. The other point of view is the critic to society, where we cannot openly tell all that we think, especially in certain situations where it would be advisable to release a small dose of wrath sometimes rather than keep those feelings for ourselves. If we want to get rid of wrath, we must be sincere with the others and express what we actually think, even if it is not pleasant for the other to hear. (6)

Context

In order to understand better the poem we must know what was happening in society where Blake lived.

In the first place, and as far as religion is concerned, there was a movement called “Swedenborgianism”, (“ecclesiastical organization of beliefs developed from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg”).(9) which was thought to have witnessed “the Last Judgment and second coming of Jesus Christ, along with the inauguration of the New Church and an explanation of the spiritual meaning of the literal sense of the Scriptures”(9)

“Emmanuel Swedenborg who lived from 1688-772, was born into a pious Lutheran home. As an intellectual he travelled widely and had many influential friends. He excelled in the fields of metallurgy and crystallography. (10)

“At the age of 57 he was granted a direct perception of the spiritual world, a perception which he recognised as a revelation from God… He understood this event to be the birth of the New Age. - Swedenborg, A Spiritual Philosophy. (Pamphlet published by the Swedenborg Movement.)”(10)

“Swedenborgian organizations teach that the writings of Swedenborg (often called The Writings or The Third Testament) are a third part of the Bible and have the same authority as the Old and New Testaments.”(9)

Its beliefs were the following :

“That there is one God and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ. Within Him there is a Divine Trinity.

That a saving faith is to believe in Him and to live a life of charity.

That all evils originate in mankind and are to be shunned.

That good actions are of God and from God, and are therefore necessary for life and should be done.

That these good acts are to be done by mankind as if from him/herself; but that it ought to be acknowledged that they are done from the Lord with Him and by Him.

That one's fate after death is according to the character one has acquired in life; specifically that those governed by the love of the Lord or the love of being useful to others are in heaven, and that those governed by love of self or the love of worldly things are in hell” (9)

“God is viewed as having a Divine soul, a Divine body and from these a Divine presence with all people. These are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So none of these are denied but they are viewed in a different manner

This means that they deny the person of God the Father, the person of God the Son and the person of God the Holy Spirit, as understood by evangelical Christians.

Salvation is an ongoing process made possible by turning away from our selfishness and living lives in obedience to God's commandments. Everyone who accepts that 'there is a God' and who tries to live a good life, can be saved.” (10)

In the second place, and as regarding to society, we must highlight The Industrial Revolution and the movement to cities as the two most important movements in this time. (11)

“The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation had a profound effect on socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain and subsequently spread throughout Europe and North America and eventually the world, a process that continues as industrialization. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in human social history, comparable to the invention of farming or the rise of the first city-states; almost every aspect of daily life and human society was eventually influenced in some way.” (12)

Blake did not welcome the industrial revolution, since he felt that “it violated the spiritual integrity of each human being and alienated workers from their work by turning them into machinery”(11)

It was maybe because of this that Blake went to live in the countryside, far from all the industrial changes and crowded cities. He was aware of the power of this industrial revolution, but he did not let it change his way of life. He kept doing his jobs (etching, printing, coloring) as he had always done, without being “infected” with this kind of dehumanization that was spreading all over the country.(11)

The incident with the soldier

The poem is clearly inspired by the incident that took place sometime between 1800 and 1803 in Felpham Village, where Blake and his wife lived in their later life. Apparently, Blake found a drunk soldier in his garden and this made Blake very furious and expelled him while insulting the king and soldiers.(1)

The garden was for Blake some kind of sacred place where he used to recite poetry with his wife. It symbolized freedom, there were no rules there and he and his wife could at least feel comfortable and do whatever they feel like. A stranger entering his paradise was the most serious insult he could perceive. Out of his house he can manage to repress his feelings, but now in his own garden the thing is different, this is a sacred place and no one dares to commit such an offense. (6)

The soldier accused Blake of saying, “Damn the King. The soldiers are all slaves.”, but as there were no witnesses, Blake denied it all and was acquitted after being put on trial. (1)

“This poem is placed in the section “Songs of experience” of his work “Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul”

Songs of Innocence mainly consists of poems describing the innocence and joy of the natural world, advocating free love and a closer relationship with God, and most famously including Blake's poem The Lamb. Its poems have a generally light, upbeat and pastoral feel and are typically written from the perspective of children or written about them.”(2)

Directly contrasting this, Songs of Experience instead deals with the loss of innocence after exposure to the material world and all of its mortal sin during adult life, including works such as The Tyger. Poems here are darker, concentrating on more political and serious themes. Throughout both books, many poems fall into pairs, so that a similar situation or theme can be seen in both Innocence and Experience. (2),(3)

Poem analysis

At first glance

When we first read the poem we soon realize that something bad is going to happen. The contrast we find in the first stanza between the treatment of his friend's problem and his foe's is like an indication to the reader that there is going to be a comparison between what should be done and what should not.

As we go on to the second quatrain we find how this bad feeling has two faces, one in his inner thoughts where he cannot scape from the hatred growing in his mind. The other face this feeling shows the one that tries to fit in society,the one that tries to show his indifference towards the incident.

In the third quatrain we see how all this feelings grow until they form an apple, symbol of all the hatred he has been not able to express. Then, he uses it as a trap to take revenge.

The repressed feelings has been used as a powerful weapon, he has taken revenge and he now can feel relief. What was hidden has happened to be the most dangerous weapon a human being can handle.

More in depth analysis

As we can see, the poem is divided in four quatrains and the author decided to choose a AA BB rhyme scheme set in couplets, probably because he wanted his poem to keep flowing from the beginning until the end and make it easy and fast to read. (7)

The main metaphor is the one that compares the process of growing of a tree until it bears fruit with the process of growing of wrath until it bears revenge. (6) “Blake represents anger as a plant and compares the angry person's relationship to his anger to a gardener's relationship to the plants he tends.”(11)

Let us comment each one of the quatrains more in detail :

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. (8)

“The speaker explains that he had had a disagreement with “his friend,” and he had felt anger toward this friend, but he told his friend about his feelings and that ended the negative attitude toward the friend.”(18)

“But then he had a disagreement with another person who was not his friend; as a matter of fact, this person was his “foe,” his enemy. No doubt, because he and his foe were not close enough to have a heart-to-heart discussion, the speaker did not tell his enemy of his anger. Because he did not talk out his wrath with the enemy, the “wrath did grow.”(18)

Here we are told how different can be the treatment we can make of wrath depending of who is the person we are dealing with. Normally, when we find ourselves with a friend and we have some kind of problem which is related with him, we tend to solve it by confessing our feelings and automatically we get rid of that burden. But when we are offended in some way by a foe, we usually try to avoid him and instead of talking with him about the problem, we keep it to ourselves, therefore, our wrath does not leave our body and what is even more dangerous, it increases. (6)

And I watered it in fears.

Night & morning with my tears:

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles. (8)

With the use of several metaphors, Blake makes us think of his wrath as some kind of seed which is nourished with the two more important elements for its growing, sun and water, with this, he has taken his first step to carry out his vengeance. The first two lines are related with the fact that he cannot forget the incident but he is mulling it over and over again. The following two are based in the way he tries to hide his real feelings from his foe. (5) “The speaker merely tries to elucidate how his wrath toward the enemy grew: he watered it with “fears” and “tears,” he covered it up in “smiles” and “wiles.””(16)

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. (8)

“The third quatrain emphasizes how consumed the speaker became with his growing hatred of his foe. The speaker dramatizes his anger by metaphorically growing it into a poison tree that sprouts a bright, shiny poison apple. His foe sees this apple and knows that it belongs to the speaker; although, the poor foe does not realize that the apple is poison. Exactly what this apple is in nature is unclear: it may be the speaker’s smile or general behavior toward the foe.”(16)

The wrath has become now a poison tree, where all the anger flows into a main point, an apple. Blake wants the apple to be very tempting, therefore the apple has to be bright to stand out from the rest of the tree in the middle in the night, thus, the foe will not notice of the surrounding wrath that gave birth that desirable object. The fact that the apple is from a person who did not even complain about the previous incident, makes the apple more desirable than it actually is. The trap has been set, the prey is about to fall into the trap. (5), (6)

And into my garden stole.

When the night had veild the pole;

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretched beneath the tree. (8)

When the night comes, the foe enters the garden and, supposedly, eats the apple. The prey has fallen into the trap. The owner has finally taken revenge, the story is over. The wrath has been released and the poet can rest at last.

“Suppression of anger leads to the cultivation of anger. Burying anger rather than exposing it and acknowledging it, according to "A Poison Tree," turns anger into a seed that will germinate. Through the cultivation of that seed, which is nourished by the energy of the angry person, wrath grows into a mighty and destructive force”. (11)

Apple as Symbol

“Though the forbidden fruit in the book of Genesis is not identified, popular Christian tradition has held that it was an apple that Eve coaxed Adam to share with her. This may have been the result of Renaissance painters adding elements of Greek mythology into biblical scenes. In this case the unnamed fruit of Eden became an apple under the influence of story of the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides. As a result, in the story of Adam and Eve the apple became a symbol for knowledge, immortality, temptation, the fall of man into sin, and sin itself. In Latin, the words for 'apple' and for 'evil' are similar in the singular (malus — apple, malum — evil) and identical in the plural (mala). This may also have influenced the apple becoming interpreted as the biblical 'forbidden fruit'”(16)

“Superstition has dictated that to eat an apple without polishing it first is a challenge to Satan. By contrast, Carl Jung interpreted the same apple as a symbol of life. Apples were also sacred to the goddess Venus and symbolized her; she "was worshipped on one half of the apple as the evening star Hesper...and as Lucifer, son of morning, on the other."”(17)

“The notion of the apple as a symbol of sin is reflected in artistic renderings of the fall from Eden. When held in Adam's hand, the apple symbolizes sin. However, when Christ is portrayed holding an apple, he represents the Second Adam who brings life. This also reflects the evolution of the symbol in Christianity. In the Old Testament the apple was significant of the fall of man; in the New Testament it is an emblem of the redemption from that fall, and as such is also represented in pictures of the Madonna and Infant Jesus.”(16)

Interpretations

Tow main interpretations can be made from the poem. On the one hand, we could read the poem from a religious point of view, where the bases of Christianity are criticized. On the other, the poem could be read as a critic to the repression of feelings in society.

Repression of feelings in society

There is a huge difference between how we deal problems with friends and how we do it with people who are not. One of the aspects that make friendship grow stronger is our sincerity towards the others, we tell a friend when we are happy, but we tell him when we got mad as well. In front of other people it seems to be different though, we always try to show our best smile and most of the time we are hiding our real feelings, this is what makes that inner feelings grow, if we do not get rid of them quickly, after something has happened, then it will be harder to handle. We must not care so much about what will the others think, but about ourselves and our feelings. We have the key to keep them balanced, telling what we really think, and if we do not agree with somebody in something, we need to express it and try to fix it from the beginning or else we will not able to do so. (6), (5)

“We nurse our misunderstandings with fears and strengthen them with our wicked tricks. We make secret efforts to bring about the destruction of our rivals. We adopt many ways to tempt and deceive them. Sometimes they fail to see the dirty tricks and fall a victim to our evil designs. When we see them fallen and defeated, we feel happy and proud of our success” (13) As the quote says, Blake's poem shows this secret weapon the human being has as well. It is some kind of natural instinct which allows us to defeat our enemy by surprise, he does not expect us to be preparing a counterattack. We are hiding our true intentions in order to obtain advantage in our next move. Although it can be thought as an evil act, I think it its just another of the human being primary instincts to survive. We have been able to improve our defensive strategies throughout centuries of evolution . When it comes to deal with society we sometimes lack of strategies of immediate response, we are a thinking animal, we like to return to our house in order to prepare ourselves for an more appropriate response.

“Disgrace and destruction of one gives special pleasures to the other”(13)

We can say we are social and civilized persons, but we can't deny our animal origins or our innate hidden cruelty. Under certain circumstances every single human being can go completely mad and enjoy with the other's suffering. There is a hidden part of our brain that reminds us that not so long ago we were just animals fighting for food, females, etc. All this kind of strategies we have been learning can not be just erased from our DNA. Whilst Blake critics this kind of behavior, I think that these kind of instincts and actions are innate as well as other. Of course society would be better if we could erase some of them, but if we take away our revenge instincts and strategies we could get rid of other as well, we do not choose what we are.

Religious hypocrisy

If we look at the poem from a religious point of view, we will see a critic from Blake to some Christian ideas as forgiveness and punishment. Christianity, since its origins, has always tried to teach us how important the idea of forgiveness is. We are told to forgive always those who have offended us, whether they deserve it or not, we must not seek revenge. But it is curious how since its origins, Christianity has been obsessed with the idea of punishment and vengeance. We just have to go to the book of genesis and check the chapters two and three, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden of Eden after eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. God did not even think about forgive them, they were directly expelled forever without any chance to redeem themselves. God takes revenge but we are told to do just the contrary, this is rather contradictory. We must avoid any impure act if we do not want to end in hell, so what about the forgiveness? We cannot do something that the teachers themselves were not even able to. (6), (5)

“The attitude of the speaker himself is to be understood as a reflection of God's attitude. By showing the speaker of the poem acting in a way reminiscent of God, Blake is showing God to be not a god of love but a cruel god and is thus criticizing the commonly held idea of God.”(11)

“The very snake, it seems, that according to the Bible tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden to disobey God and eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, leads to Adam and Eve being cast out of paradise. In Genesis the serpent is described as the craftiest of God’s creatures, though tradition later made it into the Devil. In the poem, the poison tree of the speaker’s hatred stands in a hellish inversion of Eden, in a world governed by evil.” (14)

“Here, the garden is also a symbol of whatever grows from our actions, whatever view of reality we nurture, and becomes our habitual perspective. This reminds me of the opening of the Buddhist text, “The Dhammapada”: “We are what we think… With our thoughts we make the world.” Blake forces us to ask what kind of garden we’re planting each day with our thoughts, words and deeds. What blossoms at the center: a poison tree or a tree of life?” (14)

We can say we all have our own garden. It is something we are always feeding and molding in our way. (14) We are the ones responsible of every action we take. Therefore, we must know when we are dangerously approaching an attitude which could favour the growing of something poisonous. Our garden is not something that only affects to us, we must think of if as something which forms part of a whole. Only thinking that way we could someday be able to change the world. Nevertheless, the non existence of evil and poisonous gardens is just an utopia. Hatred, revenge, suffering have always being in our lives and it will not just disappear. The human being is a cruel animal, and that is something that, unfortunately, we cannot change.

“Blake called the original draft of "A Poison Tree" "Christian Forbearance," suggesting that what is meant to appear as a gentle attitude is often a mask for disdain and anger. Furthermore, Blake believed that attitudes of piety that Christians were taught to maintain actually led to hypocrisy, causing people to pretend to be friendly and accepting when they were not. The righteousness that the conventional religion prescribed, Blake believed, allowed people to hide evil intent and to perform evil deeds, such as stifling the healthy growth of children, under the cover of appearing virtuous” (11)

The title of the original draft gives us a great clue about one of the topics of the poem. We are talking here about the nonsense that “to turn the other cheek” and being friendly in the outside whilst we are blinded by your wrath in the inside is. It really makes no sense to hide your feelings if you are only hurting yourself. The only thing you can achieve by teaching this is to be at risk of exploding and therefore, to be an actual threat to society.

This kind of education does nothing but to encourage people to be more hypocritical. Every religion should be based mainly in sincerity towards the others, that could be the only way to achieve some positive result.

We are all surprised when we see in the news people talking about a murderer, “He always seemed a normal person, so kind and formal” but what that person has experienced is, in fact, an explosion of wrath as in the poem. People who does not show their feelings during a long time usually will have some kind of psychological problem later in life. Repression is a very dangerous thing. Unbearable situations can sometimes trigger madness. We all must be aware of this.

Christian Forgiveness, What would Jesus do?

Given the importance of the religious meaning that we can extract from the poem, we are going to analyze the principles regarding Christian Forgiveness in order to better understand what is Blake criticizing.

To do so, we will make use of the advices given in a web which is intended to guide and teach the Christian prayer in order to “develop the moment-by-moment prayer life that God desires for you to experience”(17)

“Defining Christian forgiveness is done with words and actions. The word “forgive” is a grace word in the English, as well as the Greek, meaning “to give or to grant.” The meaning is “to remit a debt, to give up resentment or claim for requital, or to pardon an offense.” (18)

“Christian forgiveness also encompasses action. Our confession with God involves us seeing our sins as He sees it, bringing God’s forgiveness. When we sin against others, we sin against God. For this reason, we ask God to forgive us of our sins, but we must also forgive our fellow man.” (18)

“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong” (1 John 1:9). (18)

“What guides Christian forgiveness if an offender is not willing to repent, when the victim has done nothing wrong? The Lord commands us to forgive, releasing the offense and the offender to Him. This is done in prayer to the Lord. God recognizes these situations with this Scripture.”(18)

“Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God. For it is written, ‘I will take vengeance; I will repay those who deserve it,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). (18)

As we can see, this is completely contradictory. We are told to forgive those who offend us or sin against us keeping all our wrath and hatred within us. But on the other side, it says that although we sin against other people, we can always confess what we have done and everything will be fine again.

What comes next is even more contradictory. We have been told not to seek revenge, always forgive, but then we are told that God will take care of those who deserve a punishment. There is no way to understand it. God is the great example we are supposed to follow, he is compassionate , he will always forgive us if we confess (therefore we could live our lives killing and stealing for example and just by confessing it we would be forgiven), but then we find out that God himself is the supreme judge that will decide who will be punished.

What if the person deserve punishment but has decided to confess his/her sins to avoid it?

If we were actually following the example of God, we would have to punish those who deserve it (or at least those who we think they do) and forgiving every single person who confessed his/her sins.

“When we have been wronged, and know we did nothing to deserve harsh treatment from the offender, we normally begin to think of retaliation. Retaliation or revenge is not the right course of action. We no longer dwell on the offense when we relinquish forgiveness, allowing God to take care of the vengeance in a fair, just, and appropriate manner.”(18)

If retaliation “is not the right course of action”(18), how come God is the first in using retaliation to take care of sinners?

What we are actually told here is that we must not be worried if somebody does something bad to us because God will take care of him. If we think that way, we are putting our hope in a future vengeance carried out by God. No matter how religion tries to hide it, it itself is based on vengeance, So, how can we trust in such contradictory principles?

“Steps to Christian Forgiveness

-We recognize that we are sinners in need of forgiveness.

-We make the choice to forgive others.

-We believe and experience Christ’s loving forgiveness in our lives.

-Christ helps us to overcome negative thoughts that are blocking our ability to forgive.

-The Holy Spirit empowers us with the right attitude to forgive those who have hurt us.

-Trust that God will judge all the wrongs in the world.

-When struggling with forgiving others, talk with someone you respect and trust to give you wise counsel, such as your pastor or friend.” (18)

It is interesting to read the last step, “talk with someone you respect and trust “, it instantly reminds us of Blake's poem, where instead of talking with the person you should to (the foe) to fix the problem, you just ignore him and turn to your friends, leaving in God's hand the decision of whether to punish the foe or not.

God's wrath

“in Mark 3:29 Jesus says, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” This is a startling statement. It rules out all those thoughts of universalism that say, even if there is a hell, one day it will be emptied after people have suffered long enough. No. That is not what Jesus said. He said that there is sin for which there will never be forgiveness. There are people who will never be saved. They are eternally lost.” (19)

“After the teaching of Jesus, the apostle Paul put the eternity of God’s wrath this way in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9:

The Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” (19)

Here we have another great contradiction. While Jesus says that we would be all forgiven is we confess, there seems to be some kind of sins that have no forgiveness. So, God is a vengeful being who will make those people suffer forever, they have no chance to redeem themselves but we are told to forgive always other people no matter what they do to us. How could not be the Christian prayer confused? If we were to follow this steps we would have to watch out for every single action we take so we do not accidentally commit one of these unforgivable sins, we would have to commit only those which are “forgivable” in order to avoid God's eternal wrath. But, of course, we must forgive every insult we receive , everything can be forgiven is we are the ones who get offended. It will come as a great relief to think that these people will suffer God's wrath forever.

Personal Opinion

At first, I did not notice how much could mean this poem. But after I read it over and over again I started to find out the richness and complexity which it is composed of. At first glance it seemed quite simple to me, but I was completely wrong. The great number of interpretations, the useful moral lessons you can extract from it, the ideas expressed by the author and the fact that you can always find new hidden meanings makes this poem a great example of how a short poem could be even more meaningful and complicated than other ones with much more extension. It is simply amazing to see how many things can be said without actually mention them.

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