Critical Analysis of Sick Rose

Name: Aliza Sahar
Class: BS 4th ‘A’
Subject: Poetry
Assignment: Critical analysis of

‘ The Sick Rose’
Dated: 18-4-2021
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF “ SICK ROSE”.
“The Sick Rose” was written by William Blake, a British Poet and was published in
1794.The poet addresses the “Rose” 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 wide range of theories about what exactly the worm and rose
represent. Generally speaking the worm is corrupting figure, preying on the innocent life
force of the beautiful rose. Both worm and rose are personified and the poem is heavy
with sexual suggestion leading many critics to theories that the poem depicts the
oppression of sexuality and desire by the Christian authorities of the day.
It is one of the hotly contested poems of William Blake. There are many theories
about what the poem means. The poem features two main character: a rose and an
“invisible worm” that has made to rose sick. If the rose is read as a symbol for the
natural beauty and majority of creation ,then the poem becomes allegory for such
beauties inevtible destruction ____ for the fact 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.
Like all other plants, roses do literally face various danger from worms, bugs,
insects and other pests. The beauty of rose offers no protection against these kinds of
external threats. On one level the worm might represent the idea that death, destruction
and decay come for all living things. The worm ___a creature of the dirt borrowing deep
in the dark muck of the earth _____may also represent the way the 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 dies.
The “Sick Rose” is often interpreted as an allegory for the corrupting influence of
sexual desire. That said William Blake was actually an advocate for sexual liberation well
ahead of his time. With this in mind the poem seems to critique the way that sexual
unions are shrouded in secrecy, darkness and shame. The poem thus becomes an allegory
not for the corrupting influence of sexual 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 link to vagina
itself) .In this context the worm can read as a phallic representation of the male sexual
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 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 this “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 worms desire is literally and figuratively forced underground, perhaps gesturing
towards societal ideas about sex 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 its darkness and secrecy of the worms love that “destroys” the rose 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 usually life
affirming, here it is a killer. And though the poem does not delve too deeply into what
makes this love so corrupt , it’s is the worm distinguishing features of invisibility that
makes the union so grotesque. The rose even does not necessarily know of the worm
existence adding another unsettling layer of seediness and secrecy.
“The Sick Rose” is devoid of historical context. This poem seems to exist both in
ancient history, the present and the future------indeed it is this quality that often gives
Blake poetry a prophetic quality. Blake was a fierce critic of industrial revolution, the
beginning of which saw the growth of factories in England and a rapid increase in
machine based labor. Blake felt that humankind was losing touch with what made it
human: joy, communion with nature, desire and love.
The poem is short and sweet having the figurative voice .The poet has attributed the
high quality of the human world as male and female. So this poem is the poem of high
sound of the human world with destructed life.
_________________________________

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Critical Analysis of Sick Rose

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Name: Aliza Sahar

Class: BS 4th ‘A’

Assignment: Critical analysis of

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF “ SICK ROSE”.

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