METAPHOR DEALING WITH HUMAN NATURE IN WILLIAM BLAKE’S “A POISON TREE”

Abstract

This research is aimed to describe the metaphor dealing with human nature in the
poem “A Poison Tree”, and to reveal the metaphor constituting the human nature
in the poem. This is a library research in which all the data and the theories were
taken from written forms including internet browsing. The theories used in this
study are the theories of figures of speech, metaphor, meaning and symbol.
Moreover, structural approach, formalistic approach and psychological approach
are applied to decide the strategy in analyzing the metaphor and symbols found in
the poem. The analysis shows that: (1) there are two metaphor of human nature
analyzed in this research, they are metaphor related to feeling and metaphor
related to human characteristics. Metaphor related to characteristics is divided into
two main discussions namely individual and social creatures. Furthermore, there
are two symbols of human nature namely anger and karma.