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In his own words

A Poison Tree

William Blake · 1757-1827 · From Songs of Experience (1794)

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 fearsNight and morning with my tears,And I sunned it with smilesAnd 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 stoleWhen the night had veiled the pole;In the morning, glad, I seeMy foe outstretched beneath the tree.

What happens to anger you do not speak. It gets watered, it grows, it bears bright fruit, and somebody eats it.

The poems are in the public domain. The texts here follow Poems of William Blake, Project Gutenberg ebook 574, reproduced verbatim, punctuation included. That late 19th century text keeps the famous Tyger spelling while smoothing some others, so a few lines read slightly differently than in Blake's original etched plates. Songs of Innocence first appeared in 1789, Songs of Experience in 1794, combined by Blake into one book whose title page promises to show the two contrary states of the human soul. The introductions and groupings are ours.