Category: A Poison Tree

‘Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard’ by Thomas Gray, ‘A Poison Tree’ by William Blake and ‘A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General’ by Jonathan Swift are all poems which address death from various perspectives and use various techniques to express this common theme. In this essay, I will investigate how these three poems treat their common theme, of death, in different ways to present a variety of the views that many may have of death. ‘Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard’ examines death from the perspective of a stranger attempting to eternalise the lives of the deceased, common people, who otherwise would have been forgotten. ‘A Poison Tree’ explores the brewing emotions which influence a person to murder and bring about an untimely death. Finally, Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General’ contrasts with the two previous poems which I have chosen as it displays death in a humorous light as there is a lack of grief expressed towards John Churchill’s death.

Firstly, ‘Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard’ directly addresses death throughout its entirety. This elegy is told in the perspective of someone who fears being forgotten after they have died and presents this idea using dark and solitary imagery to evoke the emotions of how death impacts the lives of the living. Gray depicts death as a lonely state while he is left to face the graveyard alone when all others part “and leaves the world to darkness and to me” (Gray), which depicts death as an omniscient figure in Gray’s life, making this poem very personal and intimate to him, explaining why it is written in first person. The intimate nature of the poem is supported by the domestic and rural imagery surrounding the common folk. This private atmosphere also goes in line with the traditional purpose of an elegy. The poem continues to follow the natural structure of an elegy as it is written using heroic quatrains; using four-line stanzas, iambic pentameter and having a regular rhyming scheme of ABAB, this all combines to provide a measured pace. Although, this is contrasted by the non-traditional addressal of the death of a group of common people and not simply about a single person. This combination of the traditional and non-traditional provides a comfortable setting for the reader as it provides a regular and controlled flow. Gray’s elegy is filled with metaphors to explain and elucidate emotions which could not be described in ordinary language; “the curfew tolls the knell of parting day” (Gray), indicates both the bell that rings at the end of the day, and the bell that rings when someone dies so, the poet is commemorating the death of the day as if the day were a person while “Now fades the glimm’ring landscape on the sight” (Gray) resembles how a sunset symbolises the brightness and goodness in the world appearing to fade from the poet as the darkness and loneliness of death overpowers him. Gray also uses personification to make the reader connect emotionally and sympathise with the message of the poem. The poet personifies the owl which is “moping” (Gray) and complaining to the moon of her solitary station being corrupted by the passing stranger since owls are nocturnal, they are often associated with death and graveyards which again highlights the focus on death. The speaker uses alliteration when he describes the “solemn stillness” (Gray) and alliteration when the “plowman homeward plods his weary way” (Gray), these techniques drag out the sounds of the words to emphasise the dreariness. Thus, Gray uses these poetic forms to explore how death may impact the lives of both the common people and the higher classes as he wonders “Can Honour’s voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flatt’ry sooth the dull cold ear of Death?” (Gray). So, Gray delivers the message that how the average people lived their lives shouldn’t be mocked because of its simplicity, although it is not honoured and praised as much as those in a higher class of life, as in the end death takes a hold of all of us regardless of who we are.

In William Blake’s ‘A Poison Tree’ death is not the primary focus of the poem, as it is shown to be in the previous elegy. The primary motivation of this poem is to detail what thoughts can build up in a person to drive them to murder. The poem is deceptively simple as it uses an extended metaphor, assisted by a rhyming scheme of AABB, to translate the deep and complex emotions which transform the actions of the speaker. The meter of this poem varies as it is written in iambic tetrameter followed by certain deviations from this flow as some lines are written in a trochaic trimester, this is done to symbolise the competing nature of the speaker and their enemy as the metrical bases of these lines appear to be at odds. The main message of the poem is to express the dangers of repressing one’s anger and the consequences of doing so, which in this circumstance lead to an unfortunate death. This is aided by the comparison of the treatment of the friend “I told my wrath, my wrath did end” (Blake). Although he fails to communicate this same anger to his foe, choosing instead “I told it not, my wrath did grow” (Blake), so that it may breed and develop into a poisonous anger which eventually leads to death. The extended metaphor compares rage to a plant as the speaker cultivates their emotions similar to how they would cultivate a tree; “I watered it in fears” (Blake) “and I sunned it with smiles” (Blake). This allows it to develop and follow a growth cycle until it has produced an apple. The anger blossomed and brewed from a mere seed until it has reached its complete form from which the speaker may implement their resentment into a permanent and horrifying plan. The apple symbolises this ability to carry out the plan, to bring about an untimely death upon the foe. Blake allows us to get inside the mind of a murderer, something which is a difficult task to deliver in a tasteful way. The poem does so by delivering the dark imagery of death in an eloquent manner, portrayed through the colourful and descriptive scenery of an extended metaphor which eases the intensity of the poem into a form that is easier to comprehend. The ability to see into the murderer’s mind allows there to be an understanding that when the foe dies there is a satisfaction for the narrator, yet there is also a sense that they now see the destructiveness of what has occurred. This poem gives a perfect representation of how anger can cloud our judgements so that murder may appear as a reasonable solution.

Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General’ contrasts with this dark and sinister imagery as it expresses John Churchill’s death through a humorous manner. Swift begins his poem with his sentences ending in exclamation marks, “And so inglorious, after all!” (Swift), this emphasises the satirical and colloquial sarcasm which is strongly vocalised throughout the poem. This, evidently, strongly expresses the empathy and pity which the speaker lacks towards this particular death which displays that this elegy will not be traditional as it is mocking the dead. The non-traditional aspect of the poem is encouraged as it occupies a quick pace and the rhyming scheme of AABB to bring about a playfulness which stresses the joke of the poem, these rhyming couplets also give the poet the opportunity to conclude an observation with a rhyme which brings a sense of wittiness and finality in each of his statements. The tone and the poem itself are disrespectful towards the dead man, which Swift could argue was what Churchill deserved, but the views of death that it presents display it as the greatest agent of change. There is a guarantee of impermanence as despite all the achievements which the Duke gained throughout his lifetime “From all his ill-got honours flung, Turned to that dirt from whence he sprung” (Swift), these accomplishments were meaningless in the eyes of death as we are all equal in the end and must all suffer at the hands of our own mortality. Thus, Swift is able to deliver this dark and disturbing message, which is similar to the message in Gray’s poem, in a witty and light-hearted manner.

Therefore, it can be clearly seen that the three poems which I have analysed within this essay represent three separate views of death. ‘Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard’ by Thomas Gray examines death from the perspective of a stranger attempting to eternalise the lives of the common people who have died and who otherwise would have been forgotten. William Blake’s ‘A Poison Tree’ explores the brewing emotions which influence a person to murder and bring about an untimely death. Finally, Jonathan Swift’s ‘A Satirical Elegy. On the Death of a Late Famous General’ contrasts with these two perspectives on the deceased as it displays death in a humorous light as there is a lack of grief expressed towards John Churchill’s death. These three poems treated their common theme of death in many contrasting lights which in their entirety give a broader, although not complete, perspective on death itself.

Ambiguity has been identified as one of the core aspects of poetry by many. Sir William Empson said of it: “The machinations of ambiguity are among the very roots of poetry”. This paper is a contemplation about the extent Empson’s utterance it truthful to. To understand significance of ambiguity it is important to be aware that it is only one of many points that were argued in the transition of literary criticism from simple unsubstantiated judgements to a proper respected discipline. It was Empson and several other philosophers in the first half of the 20th century, including Jacques Derrida, Noam Chomsky, I. A. Richards, or the American New Critics, who helped literary criticism gain a stable position as an academic discipline. Analysis by close reading of texts, according to them, was the ideal way to approach them. That meant separating the poet and their historical, political and social implications from the artistic work itself and focusing on its stylistic devices – theory of deconstruction even goes as far as saying that “one cannot evaluate, criticize or construe a meaning for a text by reference to anything external to it”, meaning that there are, according to Derrida, “endless dialectical interpretations and readings without any stable, essential meaning”. Many of these critical theories, therefore, are to large extent drawn from more or less the same basics; that text is a subject standing on its own, not depending on the author or historical, social or cultural context – in other words, poet’s intended messages conveyed through poetry did not affect reader’s understanding of the poem. Ambiguity was looked at as one of the pillars of poetic experience, embracing the relationship between a text and its reader’s.

Opposed to that presumption stood a large crowd of philosophers celebrating direct communication between author and reader, clear intentions. Marxist critic Georg Lukács claimed that “literature always reflects the kind of system that is gradually unfolding”, highlighting the value of a poem’s content while disregarding the techniques used. Marxism, especially after the Russian Revolution of 1917, became strongly influenced by socialist utilitarianism, praising realism and refusing “insistence upon inessential details, superficiality, empty eloquence”. Simply put, Marxists believed, that art should be useful and utter only practical messages. Reader-Response theory brought yet another point of view into the argument: emphasizing different ways in which a reader participates in the course of reading they placed the reins of understanding text in readers’ hands. Subjective interpretations were not seen as debatable. Main point of focus was fixed on the processes that led to them, inevitably the reader’s background. According to Wolfgang Iser, each text has endless potential meanings, each one realized when read by a specific and unique person.

These ideas are among the ones which gained most attention. Today close reading outbalances other approaches (and it shall be used in this essay), but consideration of more than just one is desirable when looking at the importance of ambiguity in poetry, and so are opinions of the laic reader (which were quite overlooked in the development of above ideas). Ambiguity has in fact many functions: it can be built into a poem to make the reading experience more subjective and personal as each reader gets to pick their own interpretation or can enjoy their multiplicity. The following paragraphs think about significance of ambiguity both academically and non-academically and demonstrate usefulness of ambiguity on specific poems and song lyrics.

According to Empson, understanding of language “is based […] upon an intuitive realization that any word brings with it a body of meanings”. A poem may contain multiple meanings which are connected: in his sonnet ‘The Windhover’, Gerard Mantley Hopkins uses great words to describe a winged predator amidst hunting. The reader is presented with a dynamic language and lines full of great words: “High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing; In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,… My heart in hiding; Stirred for a bird, — the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!”.

The speaker is surely stunned, using sublime terms for it such as “dauphin” or “chevalier”. This can be explained simply as an expression of admiration on the bird’s grace, however, the poems sub-title “To Christ Our Lord” which is in a way a part of the poem – in the sense that it belongs to it – gives it some clarification – not that it was necessary, though. The religious aspect of ‘The Windhover’ could possibly be deciphered even without Hopkins’ dedication of it to Jesus, considering his life-time association with the church, but the “royal” ways in which he talks about the bird – “kingdom of daylight’s dauphin” – could also be pointing at Jesus’ royal heritage, raising the question whether Hopkins’ windhover is in fact an embodiment of the son of God himself. “Buckle!” exclaims the speaker in line 10, unclear if it is meant to be an indicative or imperative, who they are talking to exactly – the reader, Jesus (to whom the poem is dedicated) or themselves, or even in what sense they should “buckle” (to prepare for some sort of action or bend down to avoid the bird approaching them). On one hand, Hopkins’ speaker is just a passive observer of the nature’s beauty represented by the bird, on the other it is an emotional confession of their devotion to Christ. It could be argued that both interpretations join in one; a tribute to God, from whom come both the nature and Christ’s greatness.

A. S. A. Ibrahim argues value of ambiguity by saying that “ambiguity in a poem makes the reader try to search for or unfold what possibilities [they] can think of in relation to the thing described or referred to, as the reader is not satisfied with what [they] read, trying to find relationships and associations among things” – in other words, poets leave readers wondering what the “real” meaning actually is, making them engage with the text.

William Blake is famous for working with language in that way; thus creating a certain depth, layers in the overall meaning. Korg says about him: “Blake’s reader cannot accept passively what Blake writes, as [they] cannot understand it. [They] must dig, participate actively…”. In ‘A Poison Tree’ the language Blake uses is clear enough for a reader not seeking depth to enjoy the poem yet hiding a wider selection of meanings. The reader is told about a man (the speaker) with an enemy who is later poisoned by an apple, stolen at night from the speaker’s tree, and died – at least that is what the words say. The speaker did not express their feelings and let them grow and storm inside his head, until they overpoured. However, it is not quite clear how the story came to its end. Blake ends the poem with the following lines: “In the morning glad I see/My foe outstretched beneath the tree” hinting that the foe’s death could have been the speaker’s fault since they are “glad” about it. It is even possible that the foe is not dead, but the poem has much more potential than that: the word ‘tree” is only used in the title but it is not explicitly mentioned in any sentence in the text, which might also mean that the tree is just a metaphor for the speaker’s wrath which they “waterd in fears and tears” and “sunned with smiles and soft deceitful wiles” and the apple it bore is the outcome of these unspoken feelings, the final trap to rid of the foe once and for all. Blake makes the reader search for the meaning yet does not reward them with any finite interpretation that would feel like the “truth”.

According to David G. Brooks, “we cannot speak of an end to ambiguity” as it is dependent on readers’ understanding of the “true” meaning, which is constantly prone to change and therefore the search for the “true” meaning can never end. That is perhaps the best way to approach Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’, a poem from ’Through the Looking-Glass’. Carroll’s intention was entertainment; the book was written for kids, hence the playful and funny language. Most made-up words are explained in the book, although Carroll’s definitions often vary. Alice’s reaction to the story (which was first presented to her as a prophecy) – “somebody killed something’ – is about all that is obvious from the poem at first glance. Despite the referential ambiguity present in ‘Jabberwocky’, Carroll still sticks to English Grammar and syntax, keeping the poem organized and decodable. The story is almost based on a “template” – a hero slays the dragon and saves the day. This concept, which is, safe to assume, known to every reader, together with syntactic and grammatic rules kept in order, navigate the reader through the poem and allow them to understand, that “someone” (the hero aka Alice) killed “something” (the monster or dragon aka Jabberwock). It is hopefully not too presumptuous to call it a heroic ballad made funnier and less boring for younger readers, maybe even a parody of it.

‘A Poison Tree’, written by William Blake and published in 1794, uses rhyming couplet form, symbolism and metaphors, and tone to convey message. The message of the poem is that humans ‘water’ their anger and let it grow, whereas the poem tries to teach us that this is unideal.

The poem ‘The Poison Tree’ is a rhyming couplet. This is used as rhyming couplet is a very basic style following AABB. This contrasts the complex human emotions that are portrayed in the poem. Also, the rhyming style has a similar theme to that of a nursery rhyme. The purpose of a nursery rhyme is to teach the listener a message. Therefore, the rhyming couplet style means that the poem is teaching the reader the message that anger cannot be bottled up as eventually it will reach a point of no return, which in the poem was the death of the “foe”. ‘The Poison Tree’ uses a rhyming couplet structure to draw comparison to complex human emotions and create a nursery rhyme style to teach a message.

This poem uses symbolism as it refers to Adam and Eve. The inclusion of a biblical reference further extrapolates the dichotomy of good vs evil. It also uses a metaphor when anger is compared to growing and feeding a tree. Firstly, symbolism is used in the poem to relate it to the Garden of Eden, as in the Bible the apple Eve ate was symbolism for the perfection of the world, ruined by sin. Christianity was a very big part of life in the time that this was written, also shown in many others of Blake’s poems. Also, the poem uses a metaphor to represent anger as a tree that we feed and grow if we do not release it. This is shown in the phrase, “And it grew both day and night. Till it bore an apple bright”. The poet of ‘The Poison Tree’ wisely uses symbolism and metaphors to create the idea that anger is like a tree, which you grow and feed, as well as referring to the Garden of Eden and the apple.

Blake’s poem has strong tone conveyed throughout the poem. The tone in the poem is smug, conceited and angry. An example of this is the combination of the phrases “I was angry with my foe” and “In the morning glad I see; my foe outstretched beneath the tree”. This shows the build up of anger, from being angry, to being glad to see them dead. The speaker speaks smugly of the deceased foe, with no regret heard in his tone. Tone is also shown in the stanza saying, “And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles”. The term “wiles” shows the devious mannerisms and has manipulative tones. This is cleverly used in a way that ties into the idea of watering a plant. The poem uses tone meaningfully to illustrate the message of the poem and include the reader into the thoughts of the poem, so it is better understood.

The poem strongly reiterates the idea of anger taking the form of a tree, and it growing as we water it. It successfully creates meaning and message through use of rhyming couplet form, symbolism, metaphor and tone. William Blake’s poem ‘A Poison Tree’, strongly conveys meaning and tone, as well as teaching the reader a message.

Intro: Why does poetry speak to us in a way that grasps our attention and makes us want to discover more? Edmund Spenser’s ‘Sonnet LXVII’ (1595) offers an insight into a huntsman who is in pursuit of a lover, William Blake’s ‘A Poison Tree’ (1794) teaches us of the underlining conflict between a friend and a foe and William Butler Yeats’s ‘Leda and the Swan’ (1923) acknowledges the cruel and harrowing depiction of rape between Lena and Zeus, the God of lightning and thunder in the form of a swan. This essay argues that

Themes: ‘Leda and the Swan’ and ‘A Poison Tree’ both contain themes of violence and dominance. However, ‘Leda and the Swan’ contain themes of ‘rape’ with the God, Zeus in the form of a ‘swan’ who violently rapes princess, Leda. Spenser’s ‘A Poison Tree’ deals with themes of acrimony and rage. These specific themes are conveyed from the perspective of the poet as we get an insight into the confounding human emotions which clash between a friend and a foe: ‘I was angry with my foe; I told it not, my wrath did grow’ (Rameez et al. 81). The first two lines in the first stanza demonstrate the poets need to overcome this developing grudge towards his enemy. He must not allow his inner demons to be released (Rameez et al. 81). This bears a comparison with the cruel and vicious theme of rape and violence in Yeats ‘Leda and the Swan’ where Leda suffers the supreme sovereignty and harmful nature of the swan. The furious and persuasive mannerisms of the swan forces Leda to participate in a ghastly act: ‘By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill’ (). The growing wrath leads to destruction. The prominent theme which progresses through Spenser’s ‘Sonnet LXVII’ is a hunting yearn, a violent chase for love but at the same time a game of romance: ‘Seeing the game from him escapt away’ (). The huntsman is longing for love as he chases his beloved to retract from being desolated. ‘Leda and the Swan’ and ‘Sonnet LXVII’ examine themes of violence, but with different meanings. Yeats uses his theme of violence for inflicting pain and control over Leda while Spenser uses his theme of violence for a violent chase of love.

Form and Structure: Spenser’s ‘Sonnet LXVII’ is a fourteen-sonnet which encompasses an ABAB rhyme scheme throughout with an iambic pentameter. As a sonnet is most recognisable and praised for its theme of love, it was inevitable that Spenser would pick this specific theme. Spenser deconstructs the poem with a tender temperament line by line as we come to a halt at the volta: ‘thinking to quench her thirst at the next brooke’ () Here,

Similar to Spenser’s ‘Sonnet LXVII’, Yeats’s ‘Leda and the Swan’ follows the same fourteen-line sonnet but with a Petrarchan form and an ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme meter. The structure of poem is divided into an octave and a sestet. Yeats breaks the form and structure of the poem at the eleventh line. For a sonnet that depicts the horrific nature of violence and rape, this seemed like an odd choice for Yeats to make. The octet sets everything in motion which illustrates the dumbfounding and catastrophic events which happen to Leda: ‘He holds her helpless breast upon his breast’ (). This demonstrates

‘A Poison Tree’ is a broken up into four quatrains with an AABB rhyme scheme moving away from the acknowledgeable ABAB format ‘Leda and the Swan’ and ‘A Poison Tree’ possesses. From the point of view of the poet. The first stanza and the last stanza have . When the speaker says: ‘I was angry with my foe, I told it not, my wrath did grow’ (). This accumulates a comparison in the last stanza where a turn of events which have occurred: ‘My foe outstretched beneath the tree’ (). Blake structured the poem in this way to reflect on what happens when

Language: Janet Neigh, writer of the journal article Reading from the Drop: Poetics of Identification and Yeats ‘Leda and the Swan’ proclaims, ‘The enjambment and the linking of three sentences by commas make the action of the first stanza quick and at the same time very difficult to visualize.’ (Neigh 149). What Neigh states here is that it is a fast-paced reading, like a chase with no halting in sight. This compares to Spenser’s ‘Sonnet LXVII’ as the chase by the huntsman immediately commences from the opening line: ‘Lyke as a huntsman, after a weary chace’ (). These quotations by Yeats and Spenser employ similar characteristics to induce or give a feeling of consternation. In line five and six of ‘A Poison Tree’: ‘And I waterd it in fears, Night and morning with my tears’, the speaker demonstrates that he is using his ‘fears’ and ‘tears’ to grow the tree which subsequently leads to his downfall. The words ‘fear’ and ‘tear’ refer to ‘destruction’ while ‘watered’ refers to ‘growth’ and ‘pleasure’ (Heidar and Zamzia 113 and 115). This implies that the tree will keep growing into a deadly and destructive one when hatred is expressed and exposed (Heidar and Zamzia 113). In ‘Leda and the Swan’, the swan with its ‘great wings beating still’ levitates Leda from below (). With that said, Neigh declares that ‘she is described as ‘staggering,’ which conveys that she is still standing… she is knocked to the ground, and the wings that are still beating, connoting flight’ (149). Here, Neigh implies that the swan is possessive of Leda and has full dominance over her. This compares but somewhat has a dissimilarity to ‘A Poison Tree’ as the growing of the deadly poisonous tree falls in line with the unelevated body of Leda. Even though the ‘tree’ rising symbolizes authority and power and ‘Leda’ falls, symbolizing weakness and struggle, they both constitute a destructive nature.

Poetic Techniques: Curbet argues that: ‘the love of the lady can only be obtained if her own will freely decides that she has to give it.’ (Curbet 54). This is referred to in the third quatrain of ‘Sonnet LXVII’ showing the chase at an end. The ‘deer’ is a metaphor of the beloved: ‘sought not to fly, but fearlesse still did bide’ (Curbet 53). The ‘deer’ gives herself over to the huntsman as a ‘dear’: ‘with her owne goodwill hir fyrmely tyde’ (Curbet 54). This line suggests marriage between the lover and the beloved. The imagery in the first two lines in stanza two of ‘Leda and the Swan’ imply that Leda is trying to resist the temptation of the swan who is raping her. Leda is snared by Zeus who is metamorphosized as a swan. She is unable to be free and is ‘being caught up’ and confined in her fragmented body by his power and dominance (Neigh 152). However, as Neigh states in her reading: ‘if her ‘terrified vague fingers’ want to push ‘the feathered glory’ away, why are her thighs loosening’? (150). This somewhat demonstrates that some parts of Leda’s body: ‘loosening thighs’ are allowing the rape to progress (). She is giving herself over to the Swan’s power similar to how the deer in ‘Sonnet LXVII’ returns to the huntsman after the ‘weary chace’ (). The imagery of the ‘apple’ from ‘A Poison Tree’ and Leda’s heart from ‘Leda and the Swan’ both associate with the colour red for blood and violence. The ‘apple’ is golden and tasteful on the outside but it is rotten on the inside which reflects the speaker’s animosity. However, from Leda’s point of view, on the outside she is beautiful feminine figure but on the inside her ‘heart’ is torn apart and impaired for the way she has been treated ().

Conclusion: To sum up everything that has been stated so far, The conclusion of a compare and contrast essay should be able to summarize the major points presented in the body of the essay. It should, however, go beyond a simple analysis. The conclusion should be an evaluation of the points given above. It should present the overall aim of the essay’s discussion. Often, a paraphrased version of the thesis statement contained in the introduction is provided in the conclusion.

The concluding paragraph, in essence, should show the significance of why the essay writer compared and contrasted the two subjects that were in question. Moreover, the conclusion should contain a vivid presentation of the opinion of the essay writer on the topic of discussion.