Anger and poison

IF you are looking to expand your understanding of what it is to be human and what it means to live life in relationship with God then it would do you no harm to take a look at the works of the English poet and painter, William Blake.

In his lifetime people questioned Blake’s sanity. His world view was impregnated with strange visualisations of the divine; so much so that his wife was once reported as saying: “I see very little of my husband, he’s always in paradise”. You don’t have to read very much about Blake’s life to appreciate the origin of the ideas behind the hymn Jerusalem. And you shouldn’t be deceived by the simplicity of the much loved poem, The Tyger – it is full of symbolism, deep meaning and questioning.

Writing at around the turn of 18th century he expressed some far-reaching ideas that brought him into conflict with the institutional Church and which challenged some of the dogmas of belief which he saw as repressive. William Blake and Robert Burns were contemporaries and although it is unlikely that they were even aware of one another, there are remarkable parallels in their views. They understood the controlling influence that the unscrupulous minister or priest could have on ordinary people; they challenged doctrines that did not stand the test of logic and they railed against the hypocrisy of those who patently did not practise what

they preached. I think it is safe to say that the similarities in their views can be attributed to the fact that they were products of the same turbulent and challenging times when the ideas of the enlightenment were taking root across the continent of Europe.

As with Robert Burns, Blake’s anticlericalism and deep scepticism of questionable dogmas did not translate into a rejection of genuine belief or of Christianity properly understood and well-lived. This is seen in many of his poems which illustrate a maturity of thought which may not have been appreciated in its time but which nowadays belong in the pantheon of great works.

No better example of this is his poem entitled the Poison Tree. Four precision verses on the nature of anger and of how it damages the bearer as much as it might affect those who are the object of wrath.

The scene is set in the first verse with a description how anger, dealt with at the time and at the source, can be dissipated but when it is left to fester it can grow exponentially:

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.

There follows a description of the way in which anger grows in the bearer. Ahead of his time, Blake describes how paranoia can

You don’t have to read very much about Blake’s life to appreciate the origin of the ideas behind the hymn Jerusalem.

ignite the flames of revenge. He describes so well how we avoid the truth when dealing with our adversaries; all the while making matters worse:

And I watered it in fears, Night and morning with my tears:

And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles.

In the Letter to the Ephesians (4: 26) the writer offers a piece of sage advice, “don’t sin by letting anger control you and don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry”, I wonder if Blake had these words in mind when he penned the last two verses:

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.

Anger does not have to be wrong to be destructive or self-destructive. Blake sees this so clearly and in my view that places him clearly on the right side of sanity. ¤