"The Sick Rose" PDF - Analysis by William Blake

“The Sick Rose” By William Blake (1757 – 1827) quatrains O Rose thou art sick. ABCB The invisible worm, That flies in the night IAMBIC AND ANAPESTIC Diameters In the howling storm: enjambment Has found out thy bed...

“The Sick Rose” By William Blake (1757 – 1827) quatrains O Rose thou art sick. ABCB The invisible worm, That flies in the night IAMBIC AND ANAPESTIC Diameters In the howling storm: enjambment Has found out thy bed allegory Of crimson joy: two levels And his dark secret love symbols: rose, worm, joy, bed Does thy life destroy. Apostrophes Metaphors William Blake's age assonance ELEGY LYRICAL 1794 Summary The speaker, addressing a rose, informs it that it is sick. An “invisible” worm has stolen into its bed in a “howling storm” and under the cover of night. The “dark secret love” of this worm is destroying the rose’s life. Form The two quatrains of this poem rhyme ABCB. The ominous rhythm of these short, two-beat lines contributes to the poem’s sense of foreboding or dread and complements the unflinching directness with which the speaker tells the rose she is dying. Commentary While the rose exists as a beautiful natural object that has become infected by a worm, it also exists as a literary rose, the conventional symbol of love. The image of the worm resonates with the Biblical serpent and also suggests a phallus. Worms are quintessentially earthbound, and symbolize death and decay. The “bed” into which the worm creeps denotes both the natural flowerbed and also the lovers’ bed. The rose is sick, and the poem implies that love is sick as well. Yet the rose is unaware of its sickness. Of course, an actual rose could not know anything about its own condition, and so the emphasis falls on the allegorical suggestion that it is love that does not recognize its own ailing state. This results partly from the insidious secrecy with which the “worm” performs its work of corruption— not only is it invisible, it enters the bed at night. This secrecy indeed constitutes part of the infection itself. The “crimson joy” of the rose connotes both emotional pleasure and shame, thus joining the two concepts in a way that Blake thought was perverted and unhealthy. The rose’s joyful attitude toward love is tainted by the aura of shame and secrecy that our culture attaches to love. Summary of The Sick Rose Popularity of “The Sick Rose”: This is poem was written by William Blake, a great English poet. ‘The Sick Rose’ is a wonderful short poem famous on account of its theme of corruption and destruction. It was first published in 1794 in Song of Experience. The poem speaks about a sick rose. It illustrates how a tiny worm destroys its life secretly at night. This poem is the best example of how an innocent person can be destroyed with small mistakes or inconspicuous people or sin. “The Sick Rose” As a Representative of Wickedness: This poem is an expression of sorrow. On a surface level, this poem is about a rose and a worm. The poem begins when the speaker addresses a rose and informs her about the cause of her lifelong misery. He informs her that a tiny invisible worm that howls at night has cursed her life. It has inflected her with his dark secret love and destroyed her life. On a deeper level, the poem opens up many vistas for various interpretations. Rose may stand for a woman whose beauty and innocence are destroyed by jealousy and selfishness. It can also be seen in the context of patriarchal society, where women are subjugated and underestimated. The poem can also be interpreted as a rose, an innocent person can be corrupted by knowing and gaining too much knowledge. Major Themes in “The Sick Rose”: Love, hatred, and destruction are the major themes underlined in this poem. The speaker takes pity on a beautiful rose whose life is made hell by a tiny flying worm. He found her in her crimson bed and cursed her with his dark secret love. The speaker has presented love as a dark and destructive thing that makes the lover stand on the verge of suffering. Unlike human emotions, the rose is presented as pure and gorgeous, but a worm in the form of love enters her life and steals her joy and beauty, leaving her to suffer for her entire life. Analysis of Literary Devices Used in “The Sick Rose” Literary devices are tools that the writers use to create meanings in their texts. It is through these devices they convey their emotions, feelings, and ideas and connects the reader with the real message of the text. William Blake has also used some literary devices in this poem. The analysis of some of the literary devices used in this poem has been given below. 1. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /o/ in “O Rose thou art sick”. 2. Allegory: It is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas and principles are described in terms of characters, figures, and events. The speaker has used allegoric expression at the beginning of the poem when he informs rose about her sickness such as; “O Rose thou art sick.” 3. Apostrophe: An apostrophe is a device used to call somebody or something from afar. Here, the poet has used an apostrophe to call the rose a thing of misery “O Rose thou art sick” expressing sorrow and sadness by calling the star directly. 4. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /r/ in “And his dark secret love.”  5. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; instead, it continues in the next line. For example, “Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.” 6. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “O Rose thou art sick”, “The invisible worm/That flies in the night” and “Has found out thy bed.” 7. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects that are different in nature. For example, “O Rose thou art sick.” Here, sickness is the metaphor of something deeper than a flower. 8. Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings  that are different from the literal meanings. “Bed” symbolizes the ground and “crimson joy” is the symbol of the beauty of that rose. Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “The Sick Rose” Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem. 1. End Rhyme: End Rhyme is used to make the stanza melodious. The post has used end rhyme in the text. For example, “worm/storm” and “joy/destroy.” 2. Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here, each stanza is a quatrain. 3. Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows the ABCB rhyme scheme and this pattern continues until the end. 4. Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are two stanzas in this poem with each comprises four lines. "The Sick Rose" was written by the British poet William Blake. First published in Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1794, it is one Blake's best-known poems, while also remaining one of his most enigmatic. In eight short lines, the speaker addresses the "Rose" of the title, telling it that an "invisible worm" has made it sick. This crafty worm has flown through a stormy night to satisfy its "dark secret love" in the rose's "bed"—an action that will "destroy" the rose's life. The poem is filled with symbolism, but there are a wide range of theories about what, exactly, the worm and rose represent. Generally speaking, the worm is a corrupting figure, preying on the innocent life-force of the beautiful rose. Both worm and rose are personified, · “The Sick Rose” Summary  Oh rose, you are sick. An unseen worm has flown under the cover of a dark and stormy night.  The worm has discovered your bed of deep red joy. Now, the worm's dark, hidden love is destroying your life. "The Sick Rose" was written by the British poet William Blake. First published in Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1794, it is one Blake's best-known poems, while also remaining one of his most enigmatic. In eight short lines, the speaker addresses the "Rose" of the title, telling it that an "invisible worm" has made it sick. This crafty worm has flown through a stormy night to satisfy its "dark secret love" in the rose's "bed"—an action that will "destroy" the rose's life. The poem is filled with symbolism, but there are a wide range of theories about what, exactly, the worm and rose represent. Generally speaking, the worm is a corrupting figure, preying on the innocent life-force of the beautiful rose. Both worm and rose are personified, and the poem is heavy with emotional suggestion—leading many critics to theorize that the poem depicts the oppression of emotion and desire by the Christian authorities of the day. “The Sick Rose” Summary Oh rose, you are sick. An unseen worm has flown under the cover of a dark and stormy night. The worm has discovered your bed of deep red joy. Now, the worm's dark, hidden love is destroying your life. “The Sick Rose” Themes Death, Destruction, and Innocence “The Sick Rose” is one of William Blake's most hotly contested poems—there are many theories out there as to what the poem means! What is clear, though, is that the poem features two main characters: a rose, and an “invisible worm” that has made the rose sick. If the rose is read as a symbol, as it often is, for the natural beauty and majesty of creation, then the poem becomes an allegory for such beauty's inevitable destruction—for the fact that nothing can last forever, and that death and decay come for all living things. The rose's fate may also represent the corruption of innocence by the harsh realities of the world. Roses, with their complex network of colorful petals, often represent both love and loveliness in literature, and that seems to be what's happening in the poem as well. In its mention of the flower's “crimson joy,” the poem associates the rose with vibrant, natural beauty. But this rose is also “sick,” thanks to the “invisible worm” that's tracked the rose down. Roses, like all plants, do literally face various dangers from worms, bugs, insects, and other pests. The beauty of the rose offers no protection against these kinds of external threats. On one level, then, the worm might represent the idea that death, destruction, and decay come for all living things. The worm—a creature of the dirt, burrowing deep in the dark muck of the earth—may also represent the way that earthly society inevitably corrupts even the purest and loveliest of beings. The fact that the poem personifies the worm as a hardy and determined figure—one that flies at night of “howling storm” in order to have its way with the rose—further suggests that the forces of destruction and/or corruption will always get their way in the end, that, inevitably, the rose will lose its innocence and die. It’s worth remembering that this poem appears in Blake's Songs of Experience, which offers a kind of real-world take on the innocent perspectives and ideas presented in the poet's earlier Songs of Innocence. While the former book celebrates the majesty of creation, the Songs of Experience show how this creation is corrupted and destroyed—an idea that seems to line right up with the worm's destruction of the rose. Emotion and Desire “The Sick Rose” is often interpreted as an allegory for the corrupting influence of emotional desire. That said, William Blake was actually an advocate for emotional liberation well ahead of his time. With this in mind, the poem seems to critique the way that emotional unions are so often shrouded in secrecy, darkness, and shame. The poem thus becomes an allegory not for the corrupting influence of emotional desire itself, but for the damage caused by the suppression of that desire. A rose is a conventional symbol of love, romance, and femininity (often linked to the vagina itself). In this context, the worm can read as a phallic representation of the male emotional organ, which here seeks to penetrate the rose’s bed (meaning both flower bed and the conventional type of bed). The poem certainly plays with these connotations, with the rose’s “bed” offering up a kind of “crimson joy.” But though the worm represents strong desire, it can only act on this desire by remaining hidden. And despite the mention of “joy,” the union between the rose and the worm is neither openly joyful nor celebratory. The worm’s desire is “dark,” “secret,” and can only be fulfilled in the anonymity afforded by travelling during a “howling storm” at night. The worm’s desire is literally and figuratively forced underground, perhaps gesturing towards societal ideas about emotion that are based on shame, guilt, and sinfulness. The nature of the worm’s so-called love, then, is damaging and destructive. It seems that it’s the “dark[ness]” and secrecy of the worm’s love that “destroys” the rose’s life—rather than the action of loving itself. While love is usually something positive and nourishing, here is a vision of love corrupted into a deadly force. While love is usually life-affirming, here it’s a killer. And though the poem doesn’t delve too deeply into what makes this love so corrupt, it’s the worm’s distinguishing feature of invisibility that makes this union so grotesque. The rose doesn’t even necessarily know of the worm’s existence, adding another unsettling layer of seediness and secrecy. In the unhealthy union between worm and rose, then, emotion and desire cease to be joyful, (re)productive, or creative. Though emotion is the method by which the human race maintains its presence on this planet, here emotion—or its suppression—is a destructive, evil force. The worm is invisible, both there and not there. That is, though emotional desire is ever-present, its natural fulfillment depends upon the prevailing attitudes towards emotion. Arguably, then, the sickness of the rose stands in for the sickness of repressed emotionality in general. In other words, the poem suggests that society has lost perspective on the naturalness—and innocent joy—of emotion. “The Sick Rose” Symbols The Rose Like the meaning of the poem more generally, the symbolism of the rose is up for debate. That said, it's definitely symbolic! First, it's worth considering what roses traditionally represent. They are, of course, beautiful flowers, and thus often appear in literature as symbolic of beauty itself. They often represent a specifically feminine kind of beauty as well (think of how the phrase "an English rose" is sometimes used to describe a woman). Considering that this is a Blake poem, it's also possible to view the rose as a representation of innocence, which, in the real world, becomes corrupted (this is a common theme throughout Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience). Altogether, the rose seems to represent unspoiled beauty and loveliness. The rose also relates to emotionality. Roses are sometimes associated with the vagina, and this idea seems at play in lines 5 to 6. Here, the speaker states that the worm has found the rose's "bed / of crimson joy." The "crimson joy" provided by the rose relates to emotional satisfaction, while the "bed" itself plays on the twin definition of conventional bed and flowerbed. A bed, of course, is a typical location of emotional activity, and its mention thus heightens the emotional symbolism of the rose at the heart of this poem. The Worm As with the rest of the poem, the symbolism of the worm is open to interpretation. It's certainly no ordinary worm, described in line 2 as "invisible," and in line 3 as capable of flight. While these lines can easily be taken as being figurative—as simply saying that the worm moves very quickly and without being spotted since it's underground—they also help readers recognize that the worm is more than a literal worm in the poem. On that note, worms carry a long history of symbolism in poetry, religion, and mythology. They're usually linked with death and decay (think about the macabre description of a corpse as "worm food"), and that association is certainly in play here. They often connote sneakiness and might be used to describe a conniving person (who "worms" their way into a group, for instance). Broadly speaking, it's fair to say the worm in the poem is a symbol of dark, destructive forces. Perhaps these forces relate to dishonest, slimy members of society or the basest impulses of society itself. The worm also has a "dark secret" desire to consume the rose, suggesting that the worm can be read as a symbol of repressed emotionality. Indeed, it seems that it's the specifically secretive nature of the worm's desire—not desire itself—that the poem portrays as damaging and deadly. Perhaps, then, the worm further symbolizes the consequences of unhealthy societal attitudes towards emotion, particularly, in this case, those imposed by the institutions of the Christian religion (a common target for Blake's poetry). And of course, if the rose represents a woman, then the worm can be thought of as representing the male emotional organ. The worm is a phallus (a penis-like shape) that seeks to penetrate the rose. Again, it would be wrong to view the poem as a general criticism of emotionality. Instead, the reader is asked to consider what it is about the worm that makes its desire so grotesque and unnatural. It's also worth considering that "worm" hasn't always meant the typical earthworm (and this worm is certainly not one of those!). Over the centuries the word has denoted serpents, snakes, dragons, and others too. Given that Blake's poetry is steeped in Christianity, it's possible that the worm here also relates to the serpent in the biblical Book of Genesis, who tempts Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree—and thus causes the Fall of mankind. That same devilish desire for destruction is on show in this poem here.  “The Sick Rose” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language  Alliteration  Alliteration appears in the poem's final two lines: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy. Here, alliteration links different words together: "love" with "life" and "dark" with "does" and "destroy." This is no coincidence. In fact, these words essentially tell the poem in miniature. The sonic connection between "love" and "life" reflects how "love" has a major effect on "life" in the poem—in fact, "love," when "secret," can end "life" itself. The "dark" adjective, meanwhile, relates to the "invisible worm," with "does" relating to his action, and "destroy" describing the consequences of his actions. Darkness, the worm's illicit activities, and destruction, are all part of the same package. The particular quality of the /d/ consonant is important too. In general, the poem sounds soft, its gentle, hushed tones creating a quiet atmosphere. The /d/ sound, by contrast, is a loud, voiced consonant. Here, the sudden alliteration gives the poem an air of violence. The heavy, thudding sound reflects the catastrophic effect that the worm's actions will have on the rose.  Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Sick Rose”  Form "The Sick Rose" is a small, compact poem consisting of two quatrains. The simple form makes the poem feel all the more like an allegory, a short tale with a hidden message. The poem can also be divided into two sentences—one short, and one long. Line 1 states the facts: the rose is sick. The rest of the poem (lines 2-8) then seems to wriggle down the page, mimicking the movement of the worm that has infiltrated the rose's bed. The stanza break serves an important function here. It's not until line 5 that the long sentence comes to its main verb phrase, "has found." This creates a kind of lasting tension and final release that mirrors the worm's quest to satisfy his "dark secret love."   Meter "The Sick Rose" has a very loose meter that could be called anapestic dimeter—meaning that there are two anapests, feet with a da-da-DUM rhythm, per line. Again, though, the meter is very rough; while most lines do indeed have two feet, these are often a combination of anapests and iambs (da-DUM). Take the first stanza. The only true line of anapestic dimeter here is line 2; lines 1 and 3 open with iambs, while line 4 closes with an iamb: O Rose | thou art sick. The invis- | ible worm, That flies | in the night In the howl- | ing storm: Things get even more ambiguous when considering that a foot like "O Rose" could possibly be read as a spondee (stressed- stressed, "O Rose"). For the most part though, every line has just two stressed beats. This lends the meter a feeling of rhythm and consistency, while the varying number of unstressed beats keeps things a bit unsettling. Line 7 is the only line in the poem that unambiguously has three stressed beats: And his dark secret love Here the poem clusters stresses together to suggest the violence of the worm's desires; as he forces his way into the rose's bed, his presence on the poetic line becomes harder to escape.  Rhyme Scheme "The Sick Rose" has a regular rhyme scheme, with the second and fourth lines of both stanzas rhyming together. The poem, then, follows a pattern of: ABCB This pattern is fairly typical of Blake's poetry, and in particular of the poems in Songs of Innocence and Experience, the collection from which this poem is taken. It's also the rhyme scheme of a ballad stanza. The rhyme words effectively tell the poem in miniature: worm / storm / joy / destroy. The steadiness of the rhyme scheme, combined with the poem's short lines, quatrain stanzas, and highly symbolic imagery, makes the poem feel like an allegory, a simple story with a hidden meaning.  “The Sick Rose” Speaker The speaker in "The Sick Rose" never refers to themselves directly. This is in keeping with the poem being a sort of allegory, less about any specific perspective and more about the message at hand. This type of vantage point is also typical for the Songs of Innocence and Experience, from which this poem is taken. Here, the speaker addresses the rose through apostrophe (the rose is personified, but it doesn't answer the speaker). The speaker has a kind of omniscient knowledge, able to perceive things that the rose can't. Ultimately, the speaker is a kind of messenger arriving too late. Though the speaker delivers a warning to the rose about its fate, nothing can be done about it. The speaker also delivers this message to the reader, who is implicitly asked to consider what the rose's sickness represents.  “The Sick Rose” Setting "The Sick Rose" takes place in a garden, or another place where a red rose might grow. On a dark and stormy night, the wind "howling," a worm moves undetected through the dirt to reach and penetrate the rose's "bed / Of crimson joy"—the flowerbed, on one level, but also symbolically a regular old bed where people would partake in "crimson joy" (i.e., have emotion). This "bed" also might be taken as an allusion to female genitalia. The poem is written in the present tense—the rose is sick, but isn't dead yet. The nighttime setting and the noise of the storm heighten the sense that this is an illicit union, one that the rose doesn't want and probably isn't aware of yet. This fits in with the idea that the poem, at least in part, is about the shame and secrecy that surround emotions and desire. Desire is fulfilled in the poem, but in a way that is hidden and grotesque. The sense of both time and place in the poem contribute to this unease. Quiz 1. What is the title of the poem? A Sick Rose The Sick Rose A Road Not Taken Worms and Roses 2. Who is the author of the poem? William Blake Blake William Blake Williams Williams Blake 3. Which serves as the protagonist according to the context of the poem? The Rose The Worm The Earth Industrialization 4. Which serves as the Antagonist according to the context of the poem Industrialization The Worm The evil lover The Rose 5. During what year was the poem published? 1749 1794 1694 1849 6. What type of poem is "The Sick Rose"? Concrete Poem Sonnet Elegy Epic 7. William Blake had two perspectives, innocence and reality? True False 8. One of the features of the poem is that it is a lyrical poem. True False 9. In the poem, the line "O Rose thou art sick" represents mourning? True False 10. In the Internet interpretation of the poem the worm symbolizes a boy? True False 11. In the group's interpretation of the poem, the main antagonist which the worm represents is human kind? True False 14. What is wrong?” The poem uses a quatrain type of stanza which has 6 lines per stanza” Quatrain Stanza 6 Lines 15. What is wrong?“ The title “The Sick Rose” is a simile for something else such as our planet earth.” simile The Sick Rose Planet earth