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Comment 20 of 60, added on May 5th, 2005 at 12:41 PM.
The poem “The Sick Rose” by William Blake is a powerful poem about love and beauty, and lust and corruption. It is about an innocent woman losing her innocence to an unfaithful, dishonest man, and then feels ashamed about it. The poem consists of carefully chosen symbols to draw emotion from the reader.
The first symbol introduced in this poem is the rose, the rose is associated with love and beauty, it has life and love. It has a positive connotation and draws good emotions. The worm is the second symbol, it is associated with corruption, and cunningness and deception. Contrary to the rose, the worm has a negative connotation and it draws hateful emotions from the reader. Another symbol is the crimson joy. It is defined by the line that precedes this symbol: “Has found out they bed”. In this context “crimson joy” represents the man’s pleasure on the count of the woman’s loss of innocence.
The last two lines of this poem “And his dark secret love/Does they life destroy” actually tell the reader that the rose has been violated by the worm thus making the rose “Sick”. The combinations of these symbols give meaning to the title of this poem “The Sick Rose”.
I had to explicate this poem... so i posted it here to share with other people. Comments are welcome!
Dmitri Rodik from United States
Comment 19 of 60, added on May 1st, 2005 at 10:45 AM.
i think that the 'rose' in this poem is a person and the 'worm' is the sperm of a man.
it can destroy life because 'rose' may not have wanted to have sex.
the poem is hugely ambiguous with its two meanings
Ross from United Kingdom
Comment 18 of 60, added on April 8th, 2005 at 8:39 AM.
It is not possible to place a poem of this stature in one genre. I think that it was written for this purpose, to be viewed in many different ways. In my opinion "The Sick Rose" is about a twisted love triangle. According to Blake's dictionary a rose is symbolic of the jelous wife. The worm according to blake is the lowest form of life. I see the rose as a wife whom is very deeply in love with her husband, whom is cheating on her with a prostitute, whom resembles the invisible worm. She is appropriately named the invisible worm because she is never seen. The pain from knowing but not knowing at the same time is killing her inside. Her bed or place of joy is her marriage which she thought protected her from this pain. His dark secret love is her husbands love for this lifestyle. This is how I see it and it is interesting to view other opinions as long as they can be backed up.
Craig from United States
Comment 17 of 60, added on April 5th, 2005 at 9:55 PM.
Thank you all for your comments. I now understand what this poem means and it what it meant to me.
Lampada from United States
Comment 16 of 60, added on April 1st, 2005 at 5:59 PM.
William Blake is talking about being eaten up by guilt. He is talking about how wrong it is to feel bad about behaving in a natural way that brings joy, about feeling guilty for defying conventional morality and the strictures of the church. Don't get too worked up on the feminist thing or the virginity idea, those aren't really in these lines at all.
steve wicht from United States
Comment 15 of 60, added on March 12th, 2005 at 4:07 PM.
the sick rose is talking about how a young lady is being deflowered and ashamed for letting herself go through her devirginizing.
alexis from Italy
Comment 14 of 60, added on March 8th, 2005 at 2:54 PM.
One of my Blakian pet hates is this poem and contemporary criticisms fascination on analysing it as sex and love gone wrong. This is by no means correct (though, by rights, could be).
The rose is a symbol of many, many things, not just of love and beauty.
To give one opinion, given the political poise on Blake's writings at this time, the Rose could be representative of England. The worm, in this time period, was another way of refering to a serpent; which of course has the biblical reference ot the Garden of Eden, corruption of Adam and Eve and the devil.
Given Blake's disillusionment with it, it is reasonable to say this is possibly an attack on the established church at the time, accusing of it acting like a canker on a rose: corrupting Britain from the centre before it blooms. Which, of course, is pretty much what he believed.
With so many comments claiming in black and white that the rose refers to a women or love, it's important to be reminded that this is not only one of Blake's shortest poems, but, by most people's thoughts, his most complicated.
My advice for analysing this poem: Kind an open mind and never foget there is no correct answer. When answering an exam, it is a good idea to show you're aware of this, even if you're answer only focuses on on interpretation.
Chris from United Kingdom
Comment 13 of 60, added on March 1st, 2005 at 1:29 PM.
The fact that this poem is entitled “The Sick Rose” suggests that even a creation as beautiful as a rose can be corrupted and tempted. The thorns on the stem of a rose remind us that love and beauty are not always accessible.This poem is about love, and how it can effect a person for good or for bad.
tgp from United Kingdom
Comment 12 of 60, added on February 5th, 2005 at 4:10 PM.
I agree with Elizabeth from USA, the poem definately deals with death. In particular, age. The "rose", which represents beauty has aged, withered, and is now "sick"... about to die. This poem comments on the limited time that material things have on earth. Beauty is wonderful, but physical beauty only last so long.
Princess102 from Canada
Comment 11 of 60, added on February 1st, 2005 at 7:30 PM.
the rose is a woman and more importantly the rose is her virginity. The "invisible worm" is a man who cunningly convinces this innocent woman to give herself to him. He is primitive and barbaric and cares not about this woman but about her virginity. He wants to mark his territory ...kinda like a dog when it pees in a million diffrent places just so it can leave its secent. The woman realizes after they have sex that she has been taken advantage of and is ashamed that she enjoyed it...
this is not my real name from United States
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The poem “The Sick Rose” by William Blake is a powerful poem about love and beauty, and lust and corruption. It is about an innocent woman losing her innocence to an unfaithful, dishonest man, and then feels ashamed about it. The poem consists of carefully chosen symbols to draw emotion from the reader.
The first symbol introduced in this poem is the rose, the rose is associated with love and beauty, it has life and love. It has a positive connotation and draws good emotions. The worm is the second symbol, it is associated with corruption, and cunningness and deception. Contrary to the rose, the worm has a negative connotation and it draws hateful emotions from the reader. Another symbol is the crimson joy. It is defined by the line that precedes this symbol: “Has found out they bed”. In this context “crimson joy” represents the man’s pleasure on the count of the woman’s loss of innocence.
The last two lines of this poem “And his dark secret love/Does they life destroy” actually tell the reader that the rose has been violated by the worm thus making the rose “Sick”. The combinations of these symbols give meaning to the title of this poem “The Sick Rose”.
I had to explicate this poem... so i posted it here to share with other people. Comments are welcome!
Dmitri Rodik from United States