The speaker in the poem "A Poison Tree" describes what happens if anger is left to grow, unchecked, and without reconciliation. In the first stanza, he says that an anger which is dealt with and discussed will come to an end because it is dealt with straight away. By contrast, an anger which is not spoken or addressed but left to grow and grow will grow into something poisonous and fatal. That something in this poem is the apple, which, at the end of the poem, results in the dead body of the speaker's enemy.
This seems to be a sentiment that is rather easy to agree with. One need only examine one's own life to realize that when we deal with emotions openly and honestly, they tend to resolve themselves more easily than if we allow them to fester and to go unspoken. If you have an argument with a loved one, for example, you have two choices. You can talk to that loved one, explain honestly and calmly why you are angry, and try to reconcile with them. And the chances are, if you take this approach, you will achieve reconciliation, and the anger will subside. Or you can let the anger from that argument go unspoken, perhaps because of pride, and then over time it will grow until it can no longer be resolved quite so easily. At this point, the anger becomes bigger, harder, and, metaphorically speaking, poisonous.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Do you agree with the speaker's feeling in "A Poison Tree"?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
James is very unhappy on a number of occasions throughout the story, but he's especially unhappy with his life situation as the story be...
-
One of the plot lines in Pride and Prejudice is Mrs. Bennet’s plan to marry off her daughters, preferably to rich men. Throughout the novel...
-
Under common law, any hotel, inn, or other hospitality establishment has a duty to exercise "reasonable care" for the safety an...
No comments:
Post a Comment