A Poison Tree

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 watered it in fears
Night and 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 outstretched beneath the tree.

“A Poison Tree,” by William Blake, is an extended metaphor commenting on how people can react to anger and the consequences it creates.  It discusses the idea that if emotions, specifically anger, are kept to one’s self, they will only grow inside to cause a destructive force.  Another way of interpreting the poem is saying that it is simply about the idea of passive aggression.  The poem is pretty simple, consisting of four stanzas, each with two couplets and lines 1 and 3 having trochaic trimeter with a spondee at the end and lines 2 and 4 having iambic tetrameter.

In the first stanza Blake talks of how he removed his anger with his “friend” by talking of it, and how he let his anger sit and grow with his “foe.”  This stanza sets up the rest of the poem by identifying the lingering emotion that builds and builds with every coming line.  In the second stanza, Blake begins to develop the metaphor more.  He describes how he “watered [the tree] in fears” and “sunned it with smiles,” making a direct reference to the similarities between his growing anger and the things necessary to grow a tree.  But, although he says he “sunned it with smiles,” it is obvious that the smiles are only insincere and a cover of his true feeling.  He also discusses the time period as being “day and night” in the second stanza which implies that his emotions had dwelled for some time now, and it is clear that his anger is erupting by this point.  It grows to a point in which it creates a product of hatred—the apple.

Blake is trying to prove a point in the third stanza when he says “and my foe beheld it shine” that his building of emotion had finally produced something tangible in which the foe could clearly see.  He is trying to show that eventually dwelling emotions will come forth.  In the last stanza, when Blake discusses the “garden” and the “apple” together, he is making a strict allusion to the Bible.  He is referencing the Garden of Eden, and the sin that Adam and Eve committed can be related to not only the foe’s eating of the apple, but also the speaker’s creation of the apple.  Is Blake trying to show that by passively expressing emotions, one is committing a sin and relating to the snake in the Garden of Eden?  Is he making some distinction between the acts of God and the acts of the devil in terms of emotion?  By killing the foe and finding him outstretched beneath the tree, Blake is proving the severity and problems caused by not expressing emotions.  His use of figurative language and extended metaphor creates vivid imagery and does not prove the importance of passive aggression, but rather condemns it.

A Hard Learned Lesson

An important lesson learned from the Magistrate's experiences is the idea that when the structured government that is retaining and suppressing the "evil" force is, in itself, corrupt and no-good, then the line between what is good and what is bad is very thin. He realizes that the Empire is doing what they think is best, which, in fact, is only best for them, and is harming the other people. When morals come into play, it is obvious which force is doing the right thing. Although the Colonel and the rest of the Army may think that beating and torturing these people is simply right and what they deserve, they are driven by twisted motives and their sense of right is actually a sense of empowerment.

Another important lesson that the Magistrate learned is the idea that no matter how hard he tries to associate himself the barbarians and disassociate himself with the ways of the Empire, he cannot escape. Although at times the barbarians may sympathize with the Magistrate, they overall see him as a commanding part of the Empire, and for the most part treat him coldly. The torture and abuse that his own people inflicted upon him proves the idea that trying to escape his Empire's principles will provide no gain and only harm him. It is morally right and selfless what he is trying to do, but if he were to look from a purely selfish point of view, the betterment of himself would only come from the ways of the Empire. His history and looks cannot be changed and the barbarians may never accept him for who he wants to be and will rather only label him with the same bullseye that they put on the other members of the Empire.

Emergency in Turkey

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2529853.stm

For fifteen years, and ending in 2002, the provinces Diyarbakir and Sirnak in Turkey had been under a state of emergency do to a Kurdish separatist uprising. Over 30,000 people were left dead after a decade and a half of riots and protests against the Turkish government. Finally, in 2002, military rule proved the Turkish Democratic Republican Government to be effective in suppressing the opposing forces and stopping Kurdish uprisings.

Tave's New Look

- Tave's thesis is that although Austen's work might be characterized as being confined to a small space and time period, it allows for immense life-changing and meaningful situations/actions.
-He says that the book is confined to where Elizabeth can walk and the time period of a year.
-He proves the point that these small dimensions actually derive important decision making that may alter people's lives and the entire course of the book.
-He proves his thesis by saying it would be worse for the characters to actually "dwell" or not act within the dimensions of the book because then they would not experience or learn anything that may change their life for the good or bad. It is just good to move forward.
-He also proves his thesis by saying that these confines allow the reader to look at the important and small details/qualities of life that decide the actions, decisions, and paths of the characters in the Austen's work.
-This gave me a new understanding of Pride and Prejudice because I now understand why Austen created such a small setting with such ordinary lives. Without the small dimensions, she would not have been able to fully develop any situations or personalities, thus sacrificing the overall meaning and resolution of the story.