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The Sick Rose

             Although the "The Sick Rose" is not lengthy, there is a lot to consider within the poem. It is a fantastic example of the Romantic period of poetry writing. The use of metaphorical speech and the story within William Blake's piece outline his beliefs about life. Blake believed that imagination cannot exist without reason and good cannot exist without evil. This poem portrays a loss of innocence in a manner that only Blake could establish. .
             William Blake was a poet that believed in using metaphorical speech in order to convey the message he was trying to give to his audience. Blake's first example of this is his use of the "rose" in the poem. Blake uses the rose as a metaphor for a young, pure and likely a virgin woman. In the poem, the rose becomes sick due to the appearance of the "invisible worm" and the storm that follows his appearance. The worm is supposed to symbolize a man and his pursuit of the young virgin. Blake reveals that this pursuit is not a welcome one by saying, "And his dark secret love/Does thy life destroy". Blake is showing that the act that the man or "invisible worm" has committed has ruined the woman in some way. The line "Has found out thy bed/Of crimson joy" refers to breaking the hymen of a female during intercourse. Blake leads his readers to believe that the invisible worm must have raped the woman because he refers to the occurrence as a "howling storm".
             William Blake was a romanticist and naturally his beliefs reflected his style of writing. He believed that good cannot exist without evil, and evil cannot exist without good. Blake uses the innocent girl or "rose" to show the existence of good within the poem. The roses purity and innocence are what represent the good, however with the presence of good comes evil in the form of the "howling storm". The co-existence of good and evil is also proven because of the evil that came out of the worm trying to get some sort of sexual satisfaction.


Essays Related to The Sick Rose

1. The Sick Rose

... changes when you are talking about a rose that is sick. The very first line of the poem sets the tone for what is to follow, "O rose, thou art sick," (page 180, line 1). You now know that the poem is going to have a slow, dismal tone that will eventually end with the death of the sick rose. In the lines following the first, the speaker talks about what caused the rose to become sick. I really enjoyed how he described ... what was going on. I could actually picture the rose being "attacked" by a tiny worm that was in love with everything that the rose has to offer. In the end, the worm's...

  • Word Count: 256
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

2. The Sick Rose

... I was intrigued by, "The Sick Rose." I find the rose to be that of a reflection of Beauty as the Soul a Christian woman rather than a plant. Perhaps the 1st line can explain this: "O rose, thou art sick!" I can certainly relate this to a Christian whom has backslidden, especially given the fact that Blake, "....saw God's handiwork everywhere,..." ( The Humanities through the Arts pg. 217). The phrase "thou art sick" could be easily interpreted as the narrator's voice, (perhaps ... that God sees all and all has been revealed. It seems to be symbolic of some sort of sexual connotation, an...

  • Word Count: 549
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Critical Essay: The Sick Rose

Critical Essay: The Sick Rose In the poem "The sick Rose" by William Blake, can be interpreted in many different ways. It is about someone, telling a rose, that it is sick. And "invisible" worm has stolen into its bed in a "howling storm" and under the cover pf night. The "dark secret love" of this worm is destroying the rose's life. I think there are two major themes; one is love and how ... as committing sin. These combination love and shame, has destroyed the rose and was something that Blake found perverted and unhealthy. "The sick rose" is made up of two verses, both four lines long. The...

  • Word Count: 347
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

4. The Significance Between Willi

... of different literary devices can allow a person to critique or create poems. In Northrop Frye's essay, Giants in Time, he explains the significance of poetry as a form of literature, as well as the usage of literary devices in poetry. William Blake's The Sick Rose,' which is also in Frye's essay, is an excellent example of a poem that utilizes different forms of literary devices and for ... symbol' means, so we can say that whenever a writer uses an image, or object from the world around him, he's made it a symbol" (Frye 25-26). This affirms that the nature of the Sick Rose', a natural...

  • Word Count: 730
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. The sick rose

... "Songs of Experience" written by William Blake. Like all his poems in this genre, The Sick Rose portrays the pure, sacred life of a child as having become contaminated or unholy as it reaches and experiences the trials of adulthood, as well as being burdened with the fault of materialism. Blake uses the Rose to portray a child since both are very pure and innocent but both have underlying dark ... . The chaotic world that prevailed in Blake's time is illustrated by the words the " howling storm ", because like a storm it sweeps one away rendering one helpless and with no other but to fol...

  • Word Count: 303
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

6. A Critical Interpretation Of William Blake's The Sick Rose

... a pitiful, judgmental tone, paralleling his subject with an ill flower, hence the title. Blake uses the rose, which has historically signified femininity, to provide the reader with a sense of the homosexual's frail, feminine nature. The "invisible worm that flies by night", is a bold reference to the turbulent penis of the sick rose, whose debauched behaviors are performed as surreptitiously as possible amidst passionate caterwauling. ... a lifestyle, but also in that it provides both a mental and an auditory image of the sense of fulfillment and release in having submitted to the wile...

  • Word Count: 556
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. William Blakes Tyger Tyger and the Sick Rose

... , esoteric. It is portrayed as the insidious enemy and accentuates passion and desire. Also, the title suggest by containing the word "sick" a sense of destruction or eventuating to corruption. The " invisible worm- is seen as the destructive component throughout the poem. In terms of structure, it is very simply written in quatrain form. The Songs of Experience and The Sick Rose both remain true to the Romanticism period. Blake's life experiences forced ... spiritual values throughout his poems. For this reason he represents it in symbols which present events in a spiritual world. He be...

  • Word Count: 1294
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

8. William Blake's Sick Rose

In the poem The Sick Rose by William Blake the subject is a women on her psychological and physical sick bed. Blake uses imagery and similes to describe the destruction, caused by a sexual affair, of a female. To begin with, Blake uses similes to express his message. The Rose is not only a flower but also a woman; and the invisible worm is a sexual transmitting disease and/or lie, caused by an extra marital ... of similes the reader would not see the true meaning of the poem. As well as similes Blake uses imagery as an element in painting his portrait of a "sick Rose". Blake's choice of an "...

  • Word Count: 318
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Like Water For Chocolate and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

... she finally defies Mama Elena and tells her that she is sick of obeying her orders. " "Here's what I do with your orders! I"m sick of them! I"m sick of obeying you!" Mama Elena went to her, picked up a wooden spoon, and smashed her across the face with it. "You did it, you killed Roberto!" ... screamed Tita..." (Esquivel, 99). She breaks away from her mother and rebels by leaving the ranch and leaving behind her ... rebels against Miss Brodie and ultimately gets her fired, which puts an end to any future influences Miss Brodie can have on the students of the school. Sandy revealed how th...

  • Word Count: 2548
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Grade Level: High School

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