Poem
O rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
Brief Introduction
The Sick Rose is written by William Blake and published in 1794.
William Blake was a romantic poet of the late 18th century and
early 19th century. He was a songwriter and his work can be
divided into two categories. He called two contrary sides of the
human soul, Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence.
He associated the songs of experience with purity, peacefulness,
light, childhood, and harmony while on the other hand, he examines corruption,
decay, sinfulness, aging, and adulthood in songs of experience.
Difficult Words and Symbolism
Blake uses symbols connecting the sensuous
with the emotional and moral meaning.
Rose: Love, purity, innocence, beauty
Worm: Evil, corruption, destruction, death
Crimson joy: rose complicity both in passion and in secrecy
Poem Structure
The poem has eight lines and quatrains considered as one of the
shortest and finest poems. The poem has ABCB DEFE rhyming scheme.
Interpretation of the 1st Quatrain
The first lines open with the address of the speaker to a rose
informs that it is sick. A flying worm entered in the rose in order to save
itself from the howling storm. Although the speaker decries
the rose's sickness in the first line, the rest of the poem subtly suggests
that the rose is not innocent of her own destruction. The howling storm has a
negative connotation of weather.
2nd Quatrain
In the second quatrain the poet confirms that
the worm has found out bed there to accomplish his secret mission. The secret
mission may be a sexual relationship. He stated the worm destroys the life of
the beautiful and innocent rose.
The worm has incidentally "found out"
the rose's bed, which is "crimson joy" even prior to the worm’s
arrival. The red of passion and of the vaginal "crimson bed" image
counterpart to the worm's phallic one suggests that the rose has already been
experiencing some kind of lustful passion.
Themes
There are four main themes in this short poem.
Love and sex
Social attitudes
Transience
Secrecy is dangerous.
