Blake's A Poison Tree and Barrett Browning's Cry of the Children, - Essay Example

Blake’s “A poison Tree” and Barrett Browning “Cry of the Children” Blake’s “A Poison Tree” In his poem “A poison Tree”, William Blake discusses the nature of wrath or anger as the main theme and how one ought to deal with it (David, Harold and William, 1997). The poem offers two main ways of dealing with anger. In the first instance, when the narrator is angry with his friend, he talks to the friend about it and tells him and his “wrath did end”. In the second instance, when he was angry with his friend, he decided to keep it to himself.

This led to his anger to grow to the “poison tree” as the title of the poem suggests. The poison tree then bears a fruit which delights his enemy, and attracts him to taste it. The next day, having eaten of the poisonous fruit, his enemy fell beneath the tree, a spectacle which delighted the narrator.The moral of the poem is that anger becomes more dangerous when one decides to keep it to themselves as opposed to speaking it out and letting it go (David, Harold and William, 1997). The poem ends with the irony where the narrator is pleased to find his enemy dead after eating the poisonous fruit.

The poem uses a variety of symbols to explicate its meaning. One of the symbols used is that of the poisonous fruit that was eaten by the narrator’s enemy (David, Harold and William, 1997). The poisonous fruit in the poem has been used to symbolize anger that one has kept for a long time to such a point that he can’t hold it anymore and decides to take revenge. Over-the- top attitude was very prevalent in the Romantic literature. Most literature during the period used over the top emotions as opposed to reason.

This exaltation of emotions and an over-the-top attitude was very common during the Romantic period. This has also been brought out in William Blake’s poem “A Poison Tree” where he focuses on the emotion of anger. This angry emotion has been exalted in the poem and has reached over-the-top when it leads to death of the narrator’s enemy once he eats the poisonous fruit. Barrett browning- “Cry of the Children” In her poem “Cry of the Children” Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses politics as her main theme coupled with a lot of rich imagery in her attempt to highlight issues faced by minors who were forced to work in mines and other factories in England.

Her main purpose in this poem is to highlight the horrible conditions that these children were subjected to until some of them died as a result of child labor (Elizabeth, Marjorie and Beverly, 2009). In the opening of the poem, she describes the children as “Weeping” and goes on to say that “They are leaning their young heads against their mothers and cannot stop their tears” (Elizabeth, Marjorie and Beverly, 2009). She also reaches out to the powerful individuals who owned the factories and mines and asks them to consider what the small children go through.

Barrett’s poem has endured historical criticism from the time it was first written, but the writer seems to have achieved her purpose with the abolition of child labor in Britain and all over the world. Her wishes about respecting children and as opposed to subjecting them to harsh industrial conditions seemed to have played part in outlawing child labor. I agree with Elizabeth Barrett’s issues concerning child labor. I also concur that the poem has achieved its purpose. Despite there being other contemporary issues in other countries such as recruiting child soldiers, the poem has been largely successful.

ReferencesDavid V. E., Harold B., and William G. (1997). The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. Anchor.Elizabeth B. B., Marjorie S., and Beverly T. (2009) Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Selected Poems. Broadview Press.