A Poison Tree

The first stanza of the poem identifies the speaker as a first-person entity relating their emotional state to the reader. The speaker is “angry” with their “friend” (Line 1). However, this emotion seems misapplied for the speaker, since “friends” are those to whom individuals feel close and typically like. Individuals may occasionally be upset with those closest to them, but good friends move beyond this resentment. The speaker seems to understand this dynamic, as they relate how they diffuses their anger by expressing it, or “telling” it, and making it, essentially, “end” (Line 2). Communication is key to controlling this negative emotion. “Told” could also be a synonym here for “check” or “stifle” (Lines 2 & 4).

The emotions the speaker feels are juxtaposed with the succeeding couplet. While the first couplet is dedicated to the emotional interaction with a “friend,” what follows details the speaker’s feelings and reaction to a “foe” (Line 3). The speaker expresses the same feeling of anger toward this individual as they had toward their friend, stating that they were “angry” (Line 3). They respond quite differently to this anger, though, relating how they “told it not” (Line 4). The speaker does not keep their emotion in check; they do not try to regulate their fervor in any way because they keep it bottled up. As a result of not expressing this dangerous emotion, the speaker’s “wrath did grow” (Line 4). This negative emotion begins to gain power and influence over the speaker.

As readers move into the second stanza, they witness the development of the speaker’s resentment and hatred toward their enemy. Rather than shunning their revulsion and trying to overcome their loathing, the speaker encourages this attitude towards their nemesis. The first line of this second stanza notes how the speaker “watered it,” with the pronoun “it” referring to the wrath (Line 5). The verb “watered” sounds nurturing and productive, as in watering a garden, since the speaker is actively and purposefully enhancing this particular emotion. It is also significant that the speaker is watering their wrath with “fears” in Line 5, and with “tears” in Line 6. The idea of growing and nurturing sharply contrasts with these two nouns, since what is frightening and sorrowful carries a negative connotation. The speaker extends this ingredient list which they’re using to build upon their anger. They also “sunned” their wrath “with smiles” (Line 7). There is stark irony in these lines between the positive energy associated with the sun and with the act of smiling, and with the sinister purpose behind them. The speaker is smiling as a facade to hide their evil intent, and also possibly ironically because they are aware of their own ill intentions while their enemy is oblivious. Compounded with these smiles are “soft deceitful wiles” (Line 8), which the speaker uses to trick their foe into a false sense of security. The terms “deceitful” and “wiles” (Line 8) imply trickery and insincerity. The speaker acts inauthentically towards their foe, masking their true self in order to draw their prey in closer.

Stanza three informs readers of the effectiveness of all of these tears, fears, smiles and wiles. All of this nurturing and attention has had the intended effect, as the speaker’s wrath (again referred to as “it”) “grew both day and night” (Line 9). This concept of growing, watering, and nurturing serves as an extended metaphor as the speaker fertilizes the “plant” that is their anger. All of this attention to this wrath “bears fruit” and yields the desired result as it “bore an apple bright” (Line 10). This apple can be symbolic of something desirable or tempting. It is the epitome of all the speaker has been working towards—the bait he will use to finally subdue his enemy. The apple indeed proves enticing and hypnotic for the speaker’s enemy as “he beheld it shine” (Line 11). The foe is not entirely blameless in this situation either, as the speaker hints at the end of the third stanza. It is not simply the fact that the apple is shining and bright which attracts the foe to it. Rather, the foe “knew that it was mine” (Line 12). The foe knows the apple belongs to the speaker and it is this simple fact which incites jealousy and leads them to the actions in stanza four.

The end result of this antagonism between the speaker and their foe culminates in stanza four as the mood of the poem turns darker, away from the counterfeit cheerfulness portrayed in earlier stanzas. Urged by jealousy and greed, the speaker’s foe “into my garden stole” (Line 13). This enemy sneaks into the speaker’s space and trespasses in order to, the reader can assume, steal the coveted apple. Just as earlier in the poem the speaker attempts to mask their true intentions, the foe is equally deceitful since he enters the garden “veiled” by the “night” (Line 14). The foe is hidden by the darkness. Yet, the foe’s efforts are futile; indeed, they are fatal. When morning dawns, the speaker is “glad” (Line 15) to see their plan has worked just as they wished. When they awake and go to the garden, the speaker’s foe is “outstretched beneath the tree” (Line 16). Readers can assume the nemesis has been overcome and is dead after consuming or touching the coveted apple. The speaker’s wrath has served its purpose and proven deadly against its intended victim.