A Poison Tree

Question 1

What is the rhyme scheme?

Answer 1

AABB, rhyming couplets

Question 2

How is contrast shown in this poem?

Answer 2

Simple structure and complex ideas

Question 3

This is a didactic poem. What does this mean?

Answer 3

That it has a strong moral message

Question 4

How does it sound biblical?

Answer 4

It uses lots of ‘ands’

Question 5

What could this poem be saying?

Answer 5

That God was trying to destroy humanity

Question 6

Give examples of pairs of opposite words (oxymorons)

Answer 6

‘Night and morning’
‘Tears…smiles’
b’day and night’

Question 7

Give examples of the use of nature

Answer 7

'Water'd'
'Sunned'
'Bore an Apple'
'Garden'
'Tree'

Question 8

Give examples of words that are used to show emotion

Answer 8

‘Angry…wrath’
‘Fears…tears….smiles’
‘Glad’

Question 9

Give an example of a metaphor

Answer 9

‘Night had veiled the pole’

Question 10

What religion was William Blake

Answer 10

Unorthodox Christian

Question 11

Who wrote the poem?

Answer 11

William Blake

Question 12

Blake had a great interest in social reform

How is this useful in regards to the poem?

Answer 12

He was trying to teach people that communication was key to dealing with feeling of anger

Question 13

What idea does Blake explore?

Answer 13

That humans know the difference between right and wrong but often choose to indulge their fears

Question 14

The poem is about how if you don’t resolve an anger then it will grow. What is the metaphor for this?

Answer 14

The tree growing. The narrator is almost cultivating it to grow “and I water’d it in fears” “and I sunned it in smiles”

Question 15

How is the theme of anger presented?

Answer 15

In how you go about dealing with it “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” communication is key

Question 16

How is deception shown in the poem?

Answer 16

The speaker bottles things up. The enemy steals the fruit

“And he knew that it was mine,/ and into my garden stole”

Question 17

How is the theme of communication shown?

Answer 17

The poet communicates a moral lesson to the reader about how it is disastrous not to communicate with people “I told my it not my wrath did grow”
“My foe outstretched beneath the tree”

Question 18

How does the poet tell us that anger is a basic human emotion?

Answer 18

By not telling us anything about the people involved it shows anger can affect anyone

By using simple imagery of a tree growing

It has an uncomplicated structure suggesting that something basic is being examined

Question 19

Why did Blake choose the fruit of an apple?

Answer 19

Because it represents the anger growing large and ripening. It is a common fruit and hatred is a common feeling in humans. It also refers to the Apple in the garden of Eden

Question 20

Analyse the line, “and I water’d it in fears. Night and morning with my tears”

Answer 20

The speaker intentionally helps resentment and anger to grow as he deliberately cultivates the tree with tears of frustration and a refusal to communicate with his enemy

Question 21

What is the form of the poem?

Answer 21

It is written in quatrain which is a very straightforward grouping and one of the simplest and most recognisable

Question 22

Where is a turning point in the poem?

Answer 22

In the first stanza. How the speaker shows their differences in handling anger

Question 23

What does the use of starting a line with the word I and And show?

Answer 23

‘I’ shows that it is a personal story and and helps the story to increase in intensity as well as making it sound biblical

Question 24

What does its simplicity show?

Answer 24

It makes it seem like a nursery rhyme with a moral message

Question 25

William Blake started out as an engraver. Why is this significant?

Answer 25

Because it enabled him to see metaphors more clearly as he would sometimes engrave them

Question 26

What’s the overview of this poem?

Answer 26

It had a moral message about the consequences of anger not being dealt with