While one of the most often thought of metaphors for “anger=dynamite” it noted on the question, in my mind it is a very clichéd statement. It is highly relevant, but I believe a much better metaphor would be to explain the “anger=dynamite” metaphor in terms of fuses. People often say “anger has a short fuse.” The same quote can be used for dynamite. Once you light the fuse, it is only a short time before the reaction happens. When you light your anger “fuse,” you can only let the anger simmer in your mind for so long. After a certain amount of time, expect to blow up on someone. Perhaps my belief and the belief posed within the question are in dialogue with each other though—when your lit fuse has expired, dynamite explodes. When somebody has angered you, your fuse has been lit. It is only a matter of time before you “explode with rage” onto that person.

A large aspect I think the anger=dynamite metaphor hides is the ability to explode on the spot. Like I noted above, when you use dynamite in a metaphor people think of fuses and timing. A stick of dynamite will not explode immediately when lit. However, it does greatly showcase the probability of anger to simmer and become greater after the fuse has been lit. Another hidden aspect of this is the possibility the person who is angry will not explode; rather, they will absorb the anger and deal with the situation rationally.

The metaphor Blake gives us is “anger=tree.” He explains when he chose not to tell his foe about his wrath, rather to hide it “with soft deceitful wiles,” his wrath started to grow inside of him. The anger grew inside him like a tree and eventually poisoned him until it possessed him, living in him. I think Blake’s metaphor completely leaves out the reaction of the person who really should be angry—the foe. Blake does a good job laying out a process, though. For example, the subject’s wrath grew “till it bore an apple bright,” meaning until fruitition of a plan. Also like the anger=dynamite metaphor Blake has described an on-going process. Anger is not something rising up in you that you address. An angry person has to let the anger rest within him- or herself before he or she addresses it. Some sentences which would put Blake’s metaphor into ordinary language would be: “The anger grew in me,” “I finally got to the point I had to do something,” “I’ve been planning revenge on him or her for making me mad,” or “I have to let him know how angry I am—not by words, but by actions.”