05 June 2009

'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 and 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.


~ William Blake


4 comments:

Joanne Olivieri said...

I love William Blake and this poem. It has such meaning displayed within complex yet simple worded imagery.

Thayer said...

Hi!

Please excuse me if I overlooked your email on your blog. I noticed that you have daily-changing content from thefreedictionary.com. Because daily content (that meshes well with blog content) keeps more visitors interested and coming back, I think that some of the free 41 daily items I offer at zdaily.com might work very well for you, particularly the daily quote by a famous black person or perhaps the women's quote.

I'd like to ask you to take a look at the 41 free items at http://www.zdaily.com/content1.shtml and see what you think about adding one or two to your blog. Thank you. Thayer

askcherlock said...

Absolutely poignant. Thank you for sharing this. The poem holds so much, it will take reading several times to absorb it all, but well worth it.

Ralph Dumain said...

Blake has been my favorite poet for four decades. Secular Blake aficionados, BTW, are far superior to religious & mystical ones. These people spoil the experience of everything.