Comparison of "A Poison Tree" by William Blake and “Work without Hope" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Compare (what is the same?) and contrast (what is different?) the use of figurative language in two of the poems in your sub-genre reader. Please include the poems in your response.


I will be comparing the poems “A Poison Tree" by William Blake and “Work without Hope" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.


A Poison Tree
By William Blake

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 waterd 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.



Work without Hope
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair—
The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing—
And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
And I the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.


Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow,
Have traced the fount ‘whence streams of nectar flow.
Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,
For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!
With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll:
And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live.



The figurative language used most between these two poems is metaphor. For example, in “A Poison Tree” when it says ‘And I watered it in fears, Night and morning with my tears’, the speaker is using his fears and tears to grow his anger, just as water is used to grow a plant. A metaphor is also found in the second to last line in “Work Without Hope”. In this sentence ‘Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve’ refers to hope eventually being drained away, similar to nectar slowly draining through the sieve. Personification is also used in “Work Without Hope”. Winter is being characterized like a human, in “Work Without Hope” where it's stated ‘And Winter slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring’. Also, personification is used in “A Poison Tree” although it is not as easily identified. Here, wrath is being indirectly personified as a slow growing tree which eventually bears poison fruit. Both poems make good use of figurative language to strongly convey their message to the readers.