Read the poem, A Poison Tree Define the theme, the tone, and the mood.

Then you will need to compare the short story, The Interlopers to the poem, A Poison Tree.

Write at least 7-10 sentences; identify the theme, tone, mood, and the conflict. Then compare how the

stories are similar and different.

Answer and Explanation:

According to the instructions, we must first analyze the poem “A Poison Tree”, by William Blake. The theme of the poem concerns enmity and resentment. The speaker is able to speak to his friend when angry at him. Consequently, the issue between them is solved and the anger goes away. However, he does not do the same with his foe. For that reason, the anger grows. The tone is cynical and self-congratulatory. The speaker is glad to be feeding his own wrath. He is even happier when the wrath bears fruit and harms his enemy. The mood is joyful and ominous at the same time, since the speaker truly seems to wish for his enemy’s demise.

Now, we must analyze the short story “The Interlopers”, by author Saki. The theme of the story also concerns enmity and resentment. However, it goes beyond and includes forgiveness. The main character and his foe have inherited a feud over a forested land. They temperaments only added fuel to the already explosive relationship. However, they both end up pinned down by a fallen tree and, while stuck together, are able to let go and forgive each other. The tone is tense, the narrator is quite direct in his description of the rivalry between the men and their families. As they forgive each other, the tone becomes reflective and optimistic, but only for a brief moment. It goes back to being tense once the characters realize wolves are coming in their direction. The mood is gloomy, dark, ominous. The stormy, cold night, the dangerous forest, the men’s helplessness, all of it contributes to create this foreboding sensation.

As we can see, the story and the poem have obvious similarities between them. They have similar themes and moods. The main distinction concerns how differently the speaker of the poem evolves when compared to the characters in the story. While the characters find common ground and choose to compromise, finally letting go of their anger, the speaker in the poem chooses to keep on cultivating his wrath. He is delighted to see its result – the destruction of his foe. Both the story and the poem have a bitter ending, but this too is caused by different reasons. The story is bitter because, after anticipating a better future for the both of them, the characters realize they are going to die. Not only that, but if it weren’t for their feud, they wouldn’t have been there that night at all. Even though they found forgiveness, their rivalry was still their killer. The poem, on the other hand, is bitter because the speaker is bitter. We can almost taste his acidic sentiments toward his enemy, and his sour pleasure to hurt him.