O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
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nice
really nice poetry, although short, but really heart touching,
the invisible worm
that flies in the ight,
in the howling storm,
has found out thy bed
of crismos joy: -
The Sick Rose
From guest Mark (contact)
If you read through the whole poem its quite easy to understand it. It's simply to do with a sexual relationship, basically a sign of betrayel. The speaker had seduced a female and they had sex. Then the speaker is saying oh your sick to the person he has betrayed ie: Someone who obviously had deep affection for this female. The next lines are showing about his love and how much he enjoyed that night. Then his says about that mans secret love for the female did he destroy and abloish right behind his back. -
AFFAIR??
From guest Jenna (contact)
I believe that this poem is about a couple whos relationship has been destroyed by an affair. The rose symbolizes the relationship and the worm and dark secret love is another woman that the man is cheating with. -
The sick rose
Blake has shown us a compassionate way of viewing
Rose! -
Bed Bugs
From guest Kate de Jude (contact)
My most recent experience of the terror of the night, bed bugs tells me this poem is about those insidious vampirish bugs which seem invisible yet nightly finds one's bed and destroys even the simplest pleasures. Kate -
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rape
From guest caity (contact)
this poem can be interpreted different ways, as with all poems. i interpret it as a woman after bieng raped. his love is her destruction. -
Brilliant. The band Coil do a wonderful job of placing these words to music too.
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essay
From guest rukhsar (contact)
omg this essay is kool but can u put sum info about the sick rose - imagary of Destruction.. fankssss or send it to me email addy which is below -
This is a poem that could stay with a person for a lifetime. In just 34 words, Blake masters the craft of a multi-layers piece of work. The illustration that he did for this poem is also powerful. From the rose is shown the upper half of a woman. Her hands are outstretched, and it seems as if she is holding the worm. Where the puzzle pieces come are: two crying females (could they be the daughters?), the many thorns that failed to protect, and the healthy ground.
This is the type of poem that will always solicit varied opinions because it is so well crafted.
For me, I like to speculate about the tone of the one telling the rose it is sick. Was the tone in kindness? Diagnostic? Merciless? -
this poem has such a great first line! not to mention the wondeful imagery, bed of crimson joy. . .it's beautifuly grotesque- perfecton!
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perhaps this poem is about rape, and the life destroyed is the violated womans hapiness and vitality
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A rose can have a lot of meanings. In this poem the rose could stand for a beautiful woman, because the rose is a symbol of love, loyalty and beauty. It is normally a peaceful symbol that stands for something good. But it could also have another meaning. It could be painful or dubious because the rose, although beautiful, has thorns that can draw blood. The word sick is pretty obvious and can just mean the rose has an illness. But it could also mean mentally sick or corrupt.
“The invisible worm” is the second line. A worm is a symbol of something destructive, which eats nice things. Invisible means it cannot be seen or heard. If the worm was in some soil it couldn’t be seen or heard. I think Blake deliberately used a worm because it eats plants like roses. It could eat a rose from inside and if you saw the rose it would look perfectly healthy. You wouldn’t know there was a worm in it until it was too late. So the worm would be invisible.
The third line “That flies in the night,” reinforces the idea of silence and invisibility. But it is also showing that it spreads quickly like a disease. “In the howling storm” makes it sound evil and scary. But again the worm would not be seen or heard in a loud storm, and there is a strong sense of confusion. The word howling tells you that it is a strong storm.
The fifth line which is the first of the second stanza “Has found out thy bed” is telling us that the worm has found the rose bed. In this line “thy” if referring to the rose. A bed is somewhere where we feel safe and out of harm’s way or we would not be able to sleep. But it is also a place where we are most vulnerable because we are not conscious of things happening around us while we sleep. So the fifth line is about the rose being vulnerable.
“Of crimson joy” is the sixth line. A lot of people think that this line is about sex. But crimson is also the colour of blood.
The seventh line “And his dark secret love” could also refer to sex. Except, again, it seems to be a bad and sinister love that is illegal and has to be carried out in secret. “His” refers to the worm.
The last line “Does thy life destroy” is something about death. It could mean that the worm has killed or destroyed the rose. The word destroy has the opposite meaning to life and is almost and oxymoron.
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One of my favourite poems of all times. I agree with all that's been said about multiple meanings- the sick rose is probably both a flower and a woman, and that only adds to the significance and beauty of this rather short, yet really nice poem. It one of the few ones I have learnt by heart as soon as I read it, like "this is it"
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I'm a great fan of multiple meanings and hidden metaphors and I agree with Pozo in saying that there appear to many levels of understanding in this piece, and that's Blake packed so much profundity into such a short piece, rather then stretching it out over an epic or whatnot. He provoked thought without sacrificing focus, or losing control of the piece. As many poems do. This is clearly the work of a master, which he obviously is.
Grazia
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This is a wonderful poem I like the way it could symbolise many things, the rose could be a woman and the worm could be seen as many things. The worm could be seen as the penis or a symbol for the Serphant in the Fall (worm used to be the translation) I like the pathetic falacy, the anthrophomorphism and the symbolism in this poem. I like how short it is and yet Blake managed to make a profound poem. This is a good poem
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excellent
I liked this style! -
One of my all-time favorites. ~CWM
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lovely boy, quite divine
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