A Poison Tree

https://literarydevices.net/a-poison-tree/

Quotes to be Used

These lines can be used when narrating any personal experience of a fight. You can also teach children about the importance of forgiveness and expressing themselves without fear.

“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.”

Summary of A Poison Tree

• Popularity: William Blake, a famous American poet, wrote “A Poison Tree”, a descriptive and straightforward poem about human emotions and their consequences. It was first published in Blake’s 1794 volume Songs of Experience. The poem illustrates the key human emotion, anger, and the consequences of being angry with someone. It also explains that anger becomes deadly and devious if it is not expressed honestly. However, the popularity of the poem lies in the fact that it deals with one of the common feelings of human life.
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• “A Poison Tree” As a Representative of Hatred: The poet has discussed the duality of human nature in this poem. He says that his anger with his friend vanishes as soon as he expresses it. But he does not air his annoyance with his foe which grows and morphs into something poisonous. He further adds that he nurtures his anger with fear, resentments, sarcasm, and fake smiles. These feeling grow as a poison tree or a tree of anger, and a shiny fruit sprouts from the tree. One day, his enemy enters into his garden and dies after tasting this deceitful fruit. His death gives immense pleasure to the speaker.
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• Major themes in “A Poison Tree”:  Hatred, anger, revenge are the major themes of the poem. The poem discusses the catastrophic effects of unexpressed anger. The poet, very artistically, delves deep into the darker side of the human mind and captures the damage that anger does to the heart where it nourishes and becomes a poison. Blake explains that it is easy to forgive friends, but enemies are never forgiven. And, when a person tries to hide his hatred, it gradually grows into a mighty and destructive force.

DEAR MR KILMER - AN IMPORTANT EVENT

Write about an important event in the novel you have read. Describe the event and say why it is important.

Sample answer:

An important event in the novel ‘Dear Mr. Kilmer’ by Anne Schraff is the death of Mr. Kilmer. Here is the description of the event and the reasons why I think it is important.

On his way to the post office, Richard dropped by at Hannah’s house. He was greeted with a bad news about Mr. Kilmer’s death. He was too stunned to cry. The Schermer’s brought him inside and him the newspaper’s headline. Then only he saw Mr. Kilmer’s face for the first time after being friends for more than a year! The article described how he died and where he was buried. He was devastated but he could not cry in front of the Schermers. So, he went out and ran until he reached his favourite oak tree. He climbed up to the highest branch where he cried his heart out.

The first reason why I think this event is important is because he was able to compose a poem entitled ‘In Memory of Sergeant Joyce Kilmer’ right after the news of the death. The poem made a huge impact on the Schermers. It reminded them of their own fears and anxiety about Otto, Hannah’s brother. Mr Schermer even urged him to share the poem with other people who had experienced losing their loved ones and felt the same way as he did. The poem would mean a great deal to them.

Another reason why this event is important is because when Pa read his poem, he was not angry as usual. Instead, he looked calm and tranquil. He was able to talk about his brother Roland. Before, he could not talk about Roland at all but after he read the poem, he opened up to his son. Richard’s experience enabled him to write a poem that expressed his long bottled up grief over the tragic loss of his brother. Pa was obviously proud of Richard as Roland would be. Richard’s heart leaped up in his throat because Pa had said such a beautiful thing to him.

The final reason is the death of Mr. Kilmer resulted in a closer relationship and better communication between Richard and his father. Pa was always against the idea of Richard writing poems. Before, he felt he was an embarrassment to his father but upon the event, Pa would correct and give ideas as Mr. Kilmer had done before. Other time, Pa would simply enjoy the poems without comments or criticism. Also, Richard’s poetry had become a regular feature in the town’s weekly newspaper and the poem would never be submitted without Richard sharing it with Pa.

To conclude, the death of Mr. Kilmer is definitely the most important event in the novel. I hope I can write a poem that will give positive impacts on other people’s lives.