William Blake, known for his excellent writing ability wrote a poem which 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 as reflecting on what he observed); Where as O rose, seems to refer directly to the subject of the poem. Although our first visual of human conception of a rose may be just that, a flower, one senses much deeper in this Blake poem, "The Sick Rose".
The worm, on the other hand, would be exactly opposite of the rose, because, when you visualize a worm in an apple, it is rotting. Eating away at the core, respective of the Soul of the woman, therefore Worm can be easily interpreted as evil: ". He also saw forces of destruction everywhere" ( The Humanities through the Arts pg. 217). This could easily reflect continued struggle perhaps between good and evil (rose and worm). The rose and the worm stand as opposites in this poem, symbolically antagonistic, as portrayed by Blake.
The bed of crimson joy and the dark secret love are also symbols. This seem suggestive of an embarrassment of a sexual act, or shame because she may have God whispering in her ear, reminding her of good and evil. If these are compared as opposites as the rose and worm it could suggest: ". Bed of crimson joy" and ".HIS dark secret love" it could be indicative of shame as mentioned for crimson joy, and the purest form of love---Jesus .in reference to "HIS dark secret love". On the other hand, if you look at it as ".HIS dark secret love Does thy life destroy" you can immediately link Satan to this because he was set upon earth to "Steal, Slay, and Destroy" (The Holy Bible, King James version).
