U3 Poison Tree - Allusion

Define

An allusion is a reference. It may be a reference to almost anything: a famous person, place, event, mythical figure, work of art or
music, religious text, or a work of literature. In literature, an allusion is used to add meaning to a description. For example, in a
story someone might be described as “a real Scrooge.” This would be an allusion to Ebenezer Scrooge, the penny-pinching
character in Charles Dickens’s novel A Christmas Carol. Dickens’s character is so famous that his name alone suggests
stinginess—so the allusion implies that any person like him is stingy, too.

Some allusions are indirect. Think of the way Martin Luther King, Jr. opened his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, a plea for civil
rights, in August, 1963: “Five score years ago,” he began, and his audience was immediately reminded of another speech. King
was making an allusion to Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,” which begins, “Four score and seven years ago.” By making
this allusion, King effectively suggested that there were similarities in these two speeches without overwhelming his own
speech with historical details. Because an allusion makes reference to something other than what is directly being described,
you may sometimes be unsure what it implies.

Fortunately, today it is easy to look up the names of famous people, characters, places, events, works of art, and other things, to
figure out the meaning of an allusion for yourself.

Multiple Choice

What is an allusion?

• An allusion is an indirect reference to something.
• A direct quote from a source.
• A synonym for a metaphor.
• A detailed explanation of a concept.

Identification and Application:

●Allusions are present in many kinds of literature, including fiction, drama, and poetry.

●To determine whether an allusion is present and what the allusion refers to:

○Use your prior knowledge. Many allusions throughout literature are to well-known elements of culture or history. These
include traditional stories, religious works such as the Bible, and Greek myths. Readers who know the source of the
allusion are more likely to understand why an author included it.

○Notice the names or descriptions of people, places, or events that are not part of the action. They may be allusions.

○Note any comparisons of characters or events in the selection to characters, people, or events that never appear again.
For instance, if a character is described as having “the strength of Hercules,” and Hercules is not a character in the story,
then you can guess that Hercules is an allusion.

○Look up any allusions in a source such as a dictionary or an online encyclopedia. Learn the important points about the
person or thing being alluded to. Ask, What qualities does this allusion give to the character, place, or event being
described?

○As you read, notice whether the allusion runs throughout the text or is only present in one or a few passages. If the
allusion keeps returning, you will know that the author intends for that allusion to inform his or her theme.

Identification and Application:

●To interpret an allusion:

○Consider how the person or thing in the text is similar to and different from the person or thing alluded to. Sometimes, an
allusion draws a contrast rather than a comparison. If a character is compared to Hercules in a positive way, the character
is not only strong, but also may have other qualities of that mythological character.

○Look at the context of the allusion in the text. Remember that authors use allusions to suggest larger ideas and themes.

●Allusion adds something extra to a poem, drama, or story. Understanding the allusion gives the reader a deeper, richer
understanding of characters, events, and themes.

Model

For as long as stories, plays, and poems have been shared, authors of literature have relied on cultural allusions as an easy shortcut to
help their audiences understand a character, situation, or theme. In the plays of William Shakespeare, for example, there are allusions to
the Bible, English history, and Greek myths, just to name a few. In the centuries after Shakespeare, the poet and engraver William Blake,
who published his collection of poems Songs of Experience in 1789, also included allusions to the Bible. The Bible was an important part
of British culture, and the references the writers made would have been easily recognized and understood by their audiences.

For readers today, recognizing and understanding an allusion can be very difficult if we don’t already know the source of the allusion. This
is especially true when the allusion doesn’t include a direct reference to a name or event. That’s the case in Blake’s poem “A Poison
Tree.”

Multiple Choice

According to the Model, why is allusion an important literary device among many authors?

• Allusion is irrelevant to the themes of a text.
• Allusion is only used for humor in literature.
• Authors use allusions as an easy shortcut to
  help their audiences understand a character, situation, or theme.

• Allusion serves no purpose in connecting different works.

Model

Readers familiar with the Bible’s Old Testament may already have an idea of the source of the poem’s title. The allusion in “A Poison
Tree” is to the story of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, and the Fall of Man in the biblical Book of Genesis. Blake was very much
interested in religion, and this was well known by the audience of his day. There is no specific mention of those narratives in “A Poison
Tree,” but the main object in these narratives is the Tree of Knowledge. In addition to his title, Blake returns to this allusion in the third
and fourth stanzas. Fortunately for many readers, this biblical narrative is one of the most familiar references in Western civilization. It’s
so familiar that many readers almost automatically think of it when they read about an apple or a garden in a story or poem:

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…

This is an allusion is to the Garden of Eden, where a serpent tempted Eve to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. In the narrative, God
has forbidden Adam and Eve to taste the apples of this tree. Their punishment is to leave the garden, a place of paradise, and move out to
manage life on Earth on their own. As a result, the apple has become a symbol of temptation, and the garden a symbol of paradise.

Multiple Choice

Since "A Poison Tree" doesn't allude to names, what does the Model suggest as a reason why readers would recognize the allusion?

• The poem explicitly names historical figures.
• Readers are familiar with the poet's biography.
• The poem uses complex language that requires interpretation.
• The concept of the Garden of Eden is very familiar in Western civilization and has been alluded to in many other works

Model

What might be the interpretation —the meaning for readers—of the Garden of Eden allusion in this poem? In other words, what does the
speaker of “A Poison Tree” mean by his “apple” and “garden”? The title suggests that the speaker has deliberately poisoned the apple, and
the stanzas suggest he has tempted his foe into eating it. He has “water’d it in fears” and nursed it until “it bore an apple bright.”

And into my garden stole,

When the night had veil’d the pole;

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Here Blake is also alluding to the Fall of Man. The result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience was to become mortal, meaning they would die.
In this poem, the result of eating the speaker’s “apple” is death. The reader may infer that the speaker in “A Poison Tree” represents the
serpent—the power of evil, for example. In another interpretation, the real evil may be wrath itself. However readers interpret the poem,
the biblical allusions will be an important key to understanding.

Your Turn

Read these stanzas from Blake’s poems “A Poison Tree,” “The Little Boy Lost,” and “The Little Boy Found” and answer the follow-up questions.

from “A Poison Tree”:

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 veil’d the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

from “The Little Boy Lost”:

Father, father, where are you going
O do not walk so fast.
Speak father, speak to your little boy
Or else I shall be lost.

The night was dark, no father was there
The child was wet with dew.
The mire was deep, & the child did weep
And away the vapour flew.

from “The Little Boy Found”:

The little boy lost in the lonely fen,
Led by the wand'ring light,
Began to cry; but God, ever nigh,
Appear'd like his father, in white.

He kissed the child, and by the hand led,
And to his mother brought,
Who in sorrow pale, thro' the lonely dale,
Her little boy weeping sought.

Multiple Choice

Part A

Think about the allusions in “A Poison Tree,” “The Little Boy Lost,” and “The Little Boy Found.” What do they have in common?

• In all three poems, the speaker represents the power of evil, anger, and death.

• All three poems describe a “father” who stands for God and controls the characters’ lives and, ultimately, their fates.

• The garden in “A Poison Tree” and the “lonely fen” or “lonely dale” in the other two poems all contain poisoned plants.

• The foe in “A Poison Tree” and the little boy in the other two poems are like Adam and Eve because they are innocents who suffer.

Multiple Choice

Part B

Which lines from the three poems support your answer?

• “My foe outstretched beneath the tree”; “The night was dark, no father was there”; and “The little boy lost in the lonely fen”

• “And it grew both day and night”; “Father, father where are you going”; and “Led by the wand’ring light”

• “And I water’d it in fears”; “Speak father, speak to your little boy”; and “Who in sorrow pale, thro’ the lonely dale”

• “And into my garden stole”; “And away the vapour flew”; “but God, ever nigh,/ Appear'd like his father, in white”