Syntax in A Poison Tree

The change from past to present tense in the final couplet signifies an inevitability to the foe’s death. It is as if the speaker is an impartial witness, viewing the scene in the morning “light” of pure reason. In the final stanza, Blake uses night and day as representative of the contrasting states of the foe and the speaker, respectively. Again, a mention of Blake’s Urizen, the god of reason, is apt here. Though Urizen baits the foe with his own feelings of contempt, the god ultimately holds the human accountable.