Symbolism in William Blakes "the Rose"

In William Blake's poem, "A Poison Tree", Blake presents a story of developing anger, and the consequences of this anger if left unexpressed. Blake employs many metaphors to get the story across, some of which pertain to certain biblical imagery. The title of the poem itself uses "Tree" as a metaphor for growth or development. Thus, the poem is about a poisonous growth, which in this case, is anger.

The first 4 lines of the poem set the theme for the poem. They read "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." These lines themselves are pretty straightforward. The voice of the poem tells how his anger is growing, and when he told someone about it, his anger dissipated. In the last two lines, he goes on to explain how he had anger for a "foe" who he didn't express his anger towards. The voice then says how his anger has grown further from what it was. This is the basis of the poem that anger, if left unexpressed can lead to more undesirable outcomes than most.

The fifth and six lines of the poem, which reads "And I water'd it in fears," and "Night and morning with my tears", hints at the fact that this anger is not growing unintentionally. We can say this because someone would only water a plant if they intended to, not accidentally. The voice in this poem seems to thrive on hatred and anger; otherwise he would be doing something to stop it. Though, the last word of the line "fears", shows that the voice is weary about letting his anger build up - he fears it. The next line, "Night and morning with my tears", indicates that the voice is always dealing with grievance. Blake uses tears to convey feelings of grief for the voice of the poem.

The next two lines, "And I sunned it with my smiles And with soft deceitful wiles", relates back to the topic of the poem, that hidden or unexpressed anger can be destructive. These two lines not only show how the intentional growth of this anger is still in effect, it shows that the person harbouring the anger is being two faced about it, showing "smiles" to the person, but also pulling off "soft deceitful wiles" behind their backs without them knowing.

The poem continues with "And it grew both day and night, Till it bore