The Human Abstract, Sep 18, 2026

Blake builds this poem like a slow-growing plant, and that's exactly the point. He starts with a hard little paradox — pity and mercy only exist because someone else is suffering — then lets that seed grow into a full tree of human self-deception. The rhymed couplets feel almost like a nursery rhyme, which makes the darkening subject matter land harder: sweetness of form against bitterness of thought.

The central image is unforgettable — a tree rooted in Humility, shaded by Mystery, fed on by parasites, bearing "the fruit of Deceit, ruddy and sweet to eat." It's Eden turned inward: no serpent required, because we grow the whole orchard ourselves.

The final twist is the sharpest part. Gods search all of nature for this tree and never find it, because it isn't out there at all — it only grows in the human brain. Blake is saying cruelty and virtue are both homegrown, and that idea still unsettles.