The Sick Rose by William Blake

In “The Sick Rose”, by Blake, the poet uses an invisible worm to suggest the corruption of the rose. As the worm eats away at the flower, it become sick and eventually dies, symbolizing the rose’s corruption by the worm. This poem can be compared to the Lamb and Tiger poems, in that this is also a poem centered around innocence and corruption. The further I examined the poem, the muddier my understanding became. At first, I was convinced the rose was being destroyed by the worm but as I read on I wondered if maybe “Rose” is actually a person, and the physical flower represented her. Then what does the worm represent? I then considered maybe Rose was a wife, possibly Blake’s wife even, and she had come down with a nasty flu or a disease of some sort and that was her corruption.

The worm could even symbolize the speaker of the poem, meaning the speaker could be the corrupter of his wife, Rose, or even their love. In literate, a rose is used to symbolize love, and the speaker speaks of infection of love or to love by doing so, the poem implies that love itself is sick. Also, the rose (Rose or “love”) is not aware of its infection because one, the worm is invisible and two, the worm only does its work in the night. This could mean multiple things, one being that love is unaware of its own decay or two that love’s secrecy leads to its downfall. The reason love is oblivious to its demise is because it is blinded by its beauty and idealist view put on it by society meaning society paints a clear picture of what love “should be” and what love “has to be”, that people don’t know what love “really is.” With this self inflicted blindness, society tends to misunderstand love and eventually kill it with knowing.

 Much like the other pieces in the Songs of Experience, this poem is brief, with two stanzas. The poem deviates from the Innocence rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD to the rhyme scheme, ABCB DEFE. The rhyme scheme is dark and foreboding. The length and meter of “The Sick Rose” are two key indicators of the foreshadowing destruction and the secretive yet a sense of joy which brings upon shame. The poem ends with a juxtaposition of romantic and destructive images – the first a “crimson bed of joy” and the second a life destroyed. This leaves the idea that something of value and purity has been successfully tracked, threatened, infected and then destroyed.