Studies in Romanticism, December 22nd, 2000
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
--Blake, "A Poison Tree"
WILLIAM BLAKE'S "A POISON TREE" SUGGESTS THAT ACTING UPON ANGER puts an end to plot; whether we tell or wreak our wrath, its expression is antithetical to calculated narratives. As Philip Fisher says, anger is a fundamentally rash emotion precisely at odds with the "world of plots."(1) On the other hand, the same poem presents the cultivation of angry passions as dependent upon the secret plotting of the speaker, whose hunger for vengeance grows in p...
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