Romatic Period Essay

 

Tyler Justice

Mrs. Wilson

British Literature B

9 May 2013

Romantic Period Essay

The Romantic Period in British History is a period marked by imagination, inspiration, intuition, and in individuality. This is true especially in the work of William Blake who uses allusions, symbolism and metaphors in his work. He uses literary devices in his work The Poison Tree, to show his view on how conflict should be handled, and the ideas of sin (Lorring). The poem The Poison Tree, like most work of the Romantic period shows human nature, as a relevant and constant theme throughout the piece (Holt 731).

Blake often wrote his works in cryptic but, still they exhibited his optimism as a writer. In The Poison Tree, “Blake’s subject is anger, and his theme is his insight into what anger is and does. In poetry the theme is rarely stated directly. More often, it is implied by all the details, images, and symbols of the poem and must be deciphered by the reader” (Holt 731). Blake often wrote in this cryptic style because "There was no doubt that this poor man was mad, but there is something in the madness of this man which interests me more than the sanity of Lord Byron and Walter Scott." (Landis).

The subject of Blake’s poem often focused on religion. Blake many works focused on religion in part to “Blake's father was an avid follower of Emmanuel Swedenborg who was a Swedish scientist and religious teacher. Swedenborg abandoned his studies of science in 1747 after claiming that he understood the inner nature of human beings (what he called the divine Word) after experiencing a vision in 1745. These visions reoccurred throughout his life as well as his supposed communications with angels. He published exegetical texts on Scripture in which he claimed he had received his interpretations from God himself” (Landis). The theme of religion that constantly appears in The Poison Tree, the idea of Adam of Eve from the Bible, “Till it bore an apple bright; / And my foe beheld it shine, / And he knew that it was mine, / And into my garden stole” (ll. 10-13). Blake does this also because in the poem his subject is anger or the deadly sin of wrath, “I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath, my wrath did end” (ll. 1-2).

Another idea that Blake uses to symbolically represent the anger the narrator feels is when he says, “I told it not, my wrath did grow / And I watered it in fears, / Night and morning with my tears” (ll. 4-6). Blake does this in attempt to comment on how anger only grows by metaphorically comparing the wrath, the narrator feels to a tree. “Blake is telling the reader that fear and anger go together. One can assume that the fear of the speaker is unfounded as there has been no mention of threat from the foe. Fear can force people to think and do things that are highly out of character. This emotion can take one to a dark place, as it does with the speaker” (Lorring). Another line that shows Blake commenting on the fact that rage only grow is when he says, “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” (ll. 9-12). Another line that shows how the narrator wants his wrath to grow is when he says, “And I sunned it with smiles, / And with soft deceitful wiles” (ll. 7-8). “A Poison Tree” is Blake’s warning to the reader about what unchecked anger can do. Such an emotion can become poison to people's minds if allowed to grow” (Lorring).

Finally, the end of the climaxes with the lines “And my foe beheld it shine, / And he knew that it was mine” (ll. 11-12). Blake reaches the climax in these lines to show how like Adam and Eve the foe, gave into the temptation before him and tires to steal from the narrator. In the end of the poem we see the narrator, quenched his wrath by killing his foe. This is supported in the lines “And into my garden stole / When the night had veiled the pole: / In the morning glad I see / My foe outstretched beneath the tree” (ll. 13-16). The speaker doesn’t realize the extent of his actions fully yet, he stopped the intruder however, he now committed murder. “No matter what the anger-poisoned speaker may believe, this is not a victory. “A Poison Tree” is Blake’s warning to the reader about what unchecked anger can do. Such an emotion can become poison to people's minds if allowed to grow. Communication and releasing such emotions before they fester is the safest path to resolve conflict” (Lorring).

Blake seemed to want to help people come to a deep sense of individuality in The Poison Tree, by exposing them to the dangers of one’s anger. “And Blake sees it as his task as a poet and engraver to uncover what we have hidden from ourselves the infinite. Blake's temperament, his mood swings, his visions, were not so much, as Wordsworth states, a symptom of madness but rather, as Blake seems to assert, his sensitivity to the mystical underpinnings of life” (Landis). Blake’s purpose of writing the poem is to expose the darker side of humanity. Blake in The Poison Tree uses metaphors, symbolisms and allusions to show the dangerous side of one’s anger and the need to look for an individual outlet to safely release one’s anger. If one would fail to do this catastrophic events would happen, like in the poem, when one’s rage boiled over.

 

Works Cited:

http:/http://www.helium.com/items/2330346-poetry-analysis-a-poison-tree-by-william-blake/my.hrw.com/tabnav/controller.jsp?isbn=0030789613

http://www.litkicks.com/Blake