A Poison Tree ~ William Blake

This poem, "A Poison Tree" by William Blake makes use of extended metaphor. It consists of four four line stanzas. Each stanza signifies a change in time. The first stanza is the beginning. It introduces the ideas of anger and wrath and shows how we influence and control our anger. The second stanza more strongly introduces the metaphor of anger and plants. It shows this by "watering" and "sunning" the anger, just as a plant needs to grow. The third stanza shows the fruition of the previous stanzas effort.  The fourth and last stanza is about the success of the fruit that the tree bore. The whole poem is reminiscent of Snow White and the poisoned apple. It also shows very obviously the path of a woman seeking revenge, because lets face it, what man would go to all that trouble? And be that cunning? Definitely a woman's work.