"My foe outstretched beneath the tree."
The illustration of the poem represents a tree growing poisonously across the page. In the poem, Blake talks about how the tree grew “both day and night” and I interpreted that for this reason it is spread out all over the page. The tree's branches were overgrown and appear to consume the 'foe'.The woman lying beneath the tree is the foe who ate the apple (Gale, Overview: The Poison Tree). Because she had not been a true friend to the narrator her fate was left in the apple and for this reason, she died.
The narrator of the poem personifies wrath with the use of the tree. As shown in the illustration, the tree takes on humanly characteristics. The limbs are outstreched similar to the arms of the person lain on the ground and Blake uses the tree to represent the emotion of the tree. The tree continued to grow because the issues with the foe fed it. When he did not share his feelings, the next few lines beginning with “And I watered it in fears” shows again that when the narrator kept in his feelings, his anger grew. At this point he brought in the concept of the wrath and the tree. He thought that it would be helpful to pretend to be like the foe, when in fact this made the situation worse (Hatcht and Mine, Overview: A Poison Tree).
The narrator of the poem personifies wrath with the use of the tree. As shown in the illustration, the tree takes on humanly characteristics. The limbs are outstreched similar to the arms of the person lain on the ground and Blake uses the tree to represent the emotion of the tree. The tree continued to grow because the issues with the foe fed it. When he did not share his feelings, the next few lines beginning with “And I watered it in fears” shows again that when the narrator kept in his feelings, his anger grew. At this point he brought in the concept of the wrath and the tree. He thought that it would be helpful to pretend to be like the foe, when in fact this made the situation worse (Hatcht and Mine, Overview: A Poison Tree).
