Topics for Further Study
- In "A Poison Tree," Blake argues that suppressing anger, instead of preventing cruelty and aggression, actually fuels these negative emotions. Organize a class debate to discuss whether it is better to express your feelings when you are upset or have a differing opinion, or to keep them to yourself and try to be accommodating.
- Blake's concept of correspondences suggests that the way people imagine or think about something affects its reality in the physical world. Write an essay about an event from your own experience, demonstrating how your thoughts or imagination influenced its outcome. Alternatively, choose a social, national, or historical event and discuss how expectations shaped the results.
- Prepare a questionnaire and conduct interviews with at least ten people. Ask them about their views on a widely held or controversial moral or religious value, or a current law. Determine whether they believe the law or moral stance achieves its intended purpose and if that goal is worthwhile. Ensure you interview a diverse group in terms of age, race, gender, religion, and social class. Present your findings to the class, emphasizing both individual differences and commonalities among the respondents.
- Write a poem in rhyming couplets about a vision you have experienced. Then, write another poem on the same subject in free verse. In a paragraph, describe the challenges you faced while writing each poem.
- Select a Bible story and write a detailed essay discussing its traditional interpretation. Then, present an alternative interpretation of the same story.
- Write a short story where one character deceives another while pretending to be their friend, or believes the deception is for the other person's "own good."
- Using watercolors or pastels, illustrate a scene from "A Poison Tree." Afterwards, find a copy of Songs of Experience with Blake's illustrations to compare how he visualized his poems.
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