The poem
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.
And I waterd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears: And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night, Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine.
And into my garden stole. When the night had veiled the pole; In the morning glad I see, My foe outstretchd beneath the tree.
I looked this poem up as I imperfectly remembered the first couple of stanzas which seemed to me to be a caution about not letting resentments make foes out of friends. Now I have read all the poem it is more like a fantasy about how to kill your enemies!
the poem is meant to teach a moral lesson on how to deal with your anger may it be for a friend or an enemy.
the narrator tells of of how he had nurtured his anger for his enemy, and how he had tricked him to fell for his trap.
The poets anger turned into poison. It shows that anger can be turned into poison if not delt with correctly.
this poem just shows man's true sinful nature. it shows how man lacks restraint adn self control. the poison/wrath didn't grow itself, man nurtured it, therefore man is naturally sinful.
I think this poem shows the people how to deal with their anger. It is better to be open about how you feel or your anger will build up inside of yourself. This could possibly be the case in sad situations such as school shootings. This poem has a great message.
The poem does not describe 'man's true sinful nature' as someone before put. If you looked into William Blake a little more you would find that Blake did not believe that there was any sin. In fact he was opposed to the Church largely because of this reason. The idea of sin is a man made creation, in other words we create this idea of sin to constrain ourselves according to Blake.
learnt this poem at school - stuck in my head every since. the key is that we should never let anger grow within us.
the poem,in a beautiful manner, points to a very simple fact of life--that anger when dealt with, just vanishes,but when kept within, grows like a cancer-- the being's entire energy is then directed at plotting the downfall of his foe----and when that objective is accomplished,he derives an almost evil sense of satisfaction