During the 1980s, his reputation was established through frequent touring and recurring performances on A Prairie Home Companion. Subsequently, his work has been nominated for Grammy awards. He also founded his own record label and named it Red House Records after a home he lived in in Iowa. Red House Records is an independent record label specializing in folk music, based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Well known folk artists have signed with Red House Records over the years include Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Tom Paxton and Loudin Wainwright III. A Red House Records compilation, A Nod to Bob, was said to be a tribute from a Minnesota label to a favorite native son - guess who?
On November 21, 2002 he married the singer-songwriter Iris DeMent. His daughters (from a previous marriage) are also musicians.
From: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Brown_%28folk_musician%29
A Poison Tree
Greg Brown Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
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.
And I watered it in fears
And I sunned it with smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.
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
The poem "A Poison Tree" by William Blake is a cautionary tale about the dangerous impact of our negative emotions. The singer describes being angry with both a friend and an enemy but handling the situations differently. With their friend, they expressed their anger and found closure. But with their enemy, they kept their anger bottled up and even tended to it with tears and deceitful behavior. Their anger grew and grew until it manifested into a poisonous tree that bore a tempting apple. The enemy saw the glimmering fruit and stole it under the cover of night, only to die from its poisonous effects. The singer takes pleasure in their enemy's defeat, without realizing that they have sown the seeds of their own downfall.
The poem has strong themes of anger, revenge, and jealousy. It warns against the dangers of harboring negative emotions and letting them fester. Unexpressed anger can lead to destructive behavior and consuming thoughts. The metaphor of the poison tree is a vivid representation of how our inner turmoil can manifest into something that harms not only others but ourselves.
Line by Line Meaning
I was angry with my friend:
I had some sort of disagreement with a person I called a friend.
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I expressed my anger towards my friend, and my anger disappeared after that.
I was angry with my foe:
I had some sort of disagreement with a person I considered an enemy.
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
I kept my anger towards my enemy to myself, and as a result, it grew stronger.
And I watered it in fears
I nourished my anger with fear.
Night and morning with my tears,
I watered my anger with tears, both at night and in the morning.
And I sunned it with smiles
I fed my anger with fake smiles.
And with soft deceitful wiles.
I used deceitful and manipulative methods to fuel my anger.
And it grew both day and night,
My anger continued to grow constantly, both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright,
My anger reached a point where it produced a fruit, a manifestation of its negative impact.
And my foe beheld it shine,
My enemy saw what my anger had produced, and it caught their attention.
And he knew that it was mine, -
My enemy realized that my anger was responsible for what they witnessed.
And into my garden stole
My enemy secretly entered my peaceful place without permission.
When the night had veiled the pole;
The timing of this intrusion was when darkness covered the sky.
In the morning, glad, I see
When I found my enemy's body the next day, I felt joy and satisfaction.
My foe outstretched beneath the tree
My actions led to my enemy's demise, lying under the same tree where my anger grew and produced a toxic fruit.
Contributed by Kennedy B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.