Swedenborgianism

Religious dissent in England began in 1662 when a group of English Puritans broke away from the Church of England. They refused to take communion or accept the Church's doctrines and authority. These dissenters faced persecution until 1689 when the Act of Toleration was enacted. One form of dissent that attracted Blake in his youth was Swedenborgianism. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), a Swedish mystic, philosopher, theologian, and scientist, developed the doctrine of correspondences. This doctrine taught that the spiritual and natural worlds were interconnected, with tangible objects in the natural world representing physical manifestations of spiritual realities. Swedenborg claimed that humans could communicate with spirits, an experience Blake had several times, most notably with the spirit of his younger brother Robert after Robert's death.

Swedenborg taught that God is the source of love and wisdom, and that humans, to the extent they embody and are guided by love and wisdom, are the seat of the godhead. According to Swedenborg and Blake, Christianity, as corrupted by the established Christian churches, leads humanity away from God, a theme Blake explores in "A Poison Tree." Swedenborg argued that this disconnection from God is the Fall. He believed that the Second Coming of Christ should not be seen as a historical event but as a spiritual awakening that would occur when humanity once again embodies love and wisdom. In his later writings, Swedenborg depicted God as wrathful and judgmental, and the churches founded on his teachings began to focus on sin. After 1790, Blake rejected Swedenborg, though he retained some of his ideas.

Revolution

The latter half of the eighteenth century was marked by revolution. Philosophers like John Locke and Thomas Paine advocated for greater individual liberty, democratic governance, and human rights. In science, Isaac Newton revolutionized the understanding of the natural world and the universe. However, Blake saw Newton's mathematical reasoning and laws of nature as sources of obscurity rather than enlightenment. Blake preferred the intuitive knowledge gained through visionary revelation.

Politically, the beliefs of the past were shattered with revolutionary fervor. The American Revolution in 1776 and the French Revolution in 1789 ended the dominance of autocratic and monarchical governments. These revolutions extended property rights, allowed citizens to determine taxation, and established systems of representative republican democracy based on principles of liberty, brotherhood, and equality. Blake was a passionate supporter of these revolutions and celebrated their principles in his work. He viewed them as eruptions of suppressed energy and saw their excesses as inevitable consequences of this suppression.

In England, the conservative backlash to these radical events shaped Blake's writing style, leading him to use symbolic expression to avoid political persecution. Despite his caution, in 1803, during the peak of England's wars against Napoleon, Blake faced charges of sedition but successfully defended himself before a magistrate.

The Industrial Revolution and the Factory System

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, England underwent a significant transformation. The country shifted from a society where people primarily worked on the land or engaged in home-based manufacturing, such as spinning cotton or weaving cloth, to one dominated by factory labor utilizing newly invented machinery for mass production. The Industrial Revolution and the rise of the factory system not only increased the availability of goods and wealth for some, such as factory owners, importers, exporters, and merchants, but also reduced many men, women, and children to mere commodities, working for meager wages in the factories. These individuals became items to be bought and sold as tools of labor.

Blake found the industrial system detestable. It compromised the spiritual integrity of individuals and alienated workers from their labor by reducing them to mere machinery. The system also produced goods that were uniform and devoid of the personal touch of their makers. Blake not only wrote against the injustices of the Industrial Revolution and the factory system but also opposed them by personally etching, printing, coloring, and binding his books in his own workshop.

Iambic Tetrameter

Poetry is structured speech, with words arranged in rhythmic patterns known as meter. The most prevalent meter in English poetry is the iambic foot, consisting of two beats: the first unaccented and the second accented. Typically, in English poetry, the iambic foot is found in lines of five feet, known as iambic pentameter, though lines can vary in length. Blake's "A Poison Tree" is written in iambic tetrameter, which features four iambic feet. However, variations of this pattern frequently appear throughout the poem. In many lines, the second beat of the final foot is truncated, or cut off.

The first line of "A Poison Tree" provides an example of truncated iambic tetrameter: "i WAS / an-GRY / with MY / friend" comprises three and a half feet. The second line, however, is a complete tetrameter line, with four full iambic feet: "i TOLD / my WRATH, / my WRATH / did END." The missing beat at the end of the first line conveys the thought's incompleteness, while the full fourth foot at the end of the second line offers a sense of closure. This pattern repeats in the second rhyming couplet, producing the same effect. This pattern, along with the straightforward, non-metaphorical language and didactic content, differentiates the first quatrain from the subsequent ones.

In the two middle quatrains and the first couplet of the final quatrain, Blake exclusively uses truncated iambic tetrameter lines, such as "and I / waTERD / it IN / fears" and "and HE / knew THAT / it WAS / mine." Although the recurring rhymes link the lines of each couplet, the missing beat at the end of each line subtly suggests an ongoing process rather than a resolution. However, in the last couplet, Blake reverts to the pattern of the first quatrain. The first line of the final couplet, "in THE / mornING / glad I / see," is missing a complete fourth foot. The last line, "my FOE / outSTRETCHED / beNEATH / the TREE," concludes the thought, resolves the poem, and places final emphasis on the poem's primary subject and central image, the word "tree."

Metaphor, Simile, and Allusion

A metaphor is a literary device where one thing symbolizes another. It transforms abstract ideas into concrete images, making the intangible more tangible. Additionally, it uncovers the hidden connections between seemingly unrelated elements. In "A Poison Tree," Blake uses a plant to symbolize anger, likening the angry person's relationship with their anger to a gardener's relationship with their plants. The comparison is implicit in a metaphor. Essentially, Blake suggests that anger is like a plant, and a person who nurtures their anger is like a gardener. When the word "like" is used, it creates a specific type of metaphor known as a simile.

In "A Poison Tree," the metaphor of the tree, the apple, and the garden represents not only the speaker's anger, its consequences, and its limitations but also alludes to the biblical Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. An allusion is an indirect reference made to something not explicitly mentioned. Through the allusion to the Fall in Genesis, Blake adds a deeper layer of meaning to "A Poison Tree."

• 1790s: Blake's poetry critiques the emotional suppression promoted by the morality of his era, suggesting it has detrimental effects on spiritual, social, and personal levels.

  Today: Conservative cultural figures advocate for sexual abstinence among young and unmarried individuals. Critics, influenced by psychologists like R. D. Laing (notably in The Divided Self and Knots), argue that repressing genuine emotional and sexual expression leads to mental health issues and many societal problems.

• 1790s: Revolutionary turmoil in France, including the Reign of Terror, prompts the British government to implement measures to prevent attacks on English soil and restrict freedom of speech.

  Today: In response to terrorist acts by fundamentalist Islamic groups in the UK, the British government aims to enact stringent antiterrorism laws and enhance police authority.

• 1790s: The factory system forces workers, including children, to endure up to fourteen-hour days of grueling labor, severely damaging their health and spirit.

  Today: While child labor has been eradicated in Britain, it persists in many developing countries that supply goods to the UK. The British Broadcasting Company notes that "more than half of British workers are suffering from stress" and that "companies [are] adding to employee stress levels by demanding long hours." In the UK, one-third of employees work over forty-eight hours a week, and "three out of five people are working unpaid overtime."

• Famous Authors: William Blake (1996), a documentary exploring the life and works of the poet, featuring insights from scholars, was produced by Kultur Video.
• Pioneers of the Spirit: William Blake (2005), released by Vision Video, examines the visionary and mystical aspects of Blake's art and writing.

Sources

Blake, William, "The Garden of Love," in The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David Erdman, Doubleday & Company, 1965, p. 26.

――――――, "The Human Abstract," in The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David Erdman, Doubleday & Company, 1965, p. 27.

――――――, "A Little Girl Lost," in The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David Erdman, Doubleday & Company, 1965, p. 29.

――――――, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell," in The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David Erdman, Doubleday & Company, 1965, pp. 34, 36, 37.

――――――, "A Poison Tree," in The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, edited by David Erdman, Doubleday & Company, 1965, p. 28.

Erdman, David, ed., The Poetry and Prose of William Blake, Doubleday & Company, 1965, p. xxiii.

Heims, Neil, "Biography of William Blake," in Bloom's BioCritiques: William Blake, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers, 2006, pp. 23, 34, 35, 75-77.

"Long Hours 'Stress British Workers,'" BBC News, November 7, 2001, available online at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1642472.stm

Further Reading

Bentley, G. E., Jr., The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake, Yale University Press, 2001.

Bentley's esteemed biography of Blake spans over five hundred pages, presenting meticulous and insightful research. He utilizes documents from Blake's era to craft a detailed narrative exploring Blake's life, works, beliefs, and thoughts.

"Book of Genesis, 2:8-19," in The Torah: The Five Books of Moses, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1980.

This Genesis passage recounts the tale of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, planted by God in the Garden of Eden. It includes the forbidden fruit, the satanic temptation, and God's subsequent punishment.

Erdman, David V., Prophet Against Empire, 3rd ed., Dover, 1977.

Erdman, a major modern editor of Blake's work, provides an extensive and scholarly analysis of the political and historical contexts surrounding Blake's creations.

Frye, Northrup, Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake, Princeton University Press, 1947.

This seminal work is a classic examination of the evolution of Blake's religious symbolism and mysticism, set against the backdrop of the eighteenth-century environment to which he was opposed.

Ruskin, John, "The Nature of Gothic," in The Genius of John Ruskin, edited by John D. Rosenberg, Riverside Press, 1965.

In this excerpt from The Stones of Venice, the nineteenth-century art and social critic John Ruskin, who greatly admired Blake, critiques the Industrial Revolution by delving into medieval craftsmanship and the philosophy behind the construction of grand cathedrals in the Middle Ages.