Sick Rose by William Blake

Sick Rose by William Blake is a monologue that directly addresses the "character" of the rose. The rose does not respond to the speaker's dark diagnosis, and never itself speaks. The voice of the poem is then also dependent upon the speaker making the diagnosis of the rose being sick. There is no discernable setting besides the "bed" mentioned in the second stanza. This contributes to the central theme of the poem, as symbolized by the sick rose. This is also the central image of the poem. The speaker directly addresses the rose, using the symbolic image of the worm as the reason for the rose's ailment. The imagery of the sick rose appears to symbolize romantic love that has become diseased.

William Blake wrote during the poetic period known as Romanticism. From this, it can be inferred that the rose in the poem is symbolic of romantic love. However, the symbolism in this particular poem is unusual. The rose is not used in the usual poetic convention of the period; instead, it has a decidedly dark aspect. It is sick. Blake introduces the symbolism of the worm to signify disease.

Indeed, the whole poem is saturated with the idea of disease by means of diction. It begins as early as in the title, with an apparent dichotomy: the "sick" rose. A rose is something beautiful and pure in Romantic symbolism. However, the illness completely destroys the beauty and innocence of the rose. The presence of the worm is continually felt by means of words such as "night" and "storm" in the first stanza and "crimson," "secret," and "destroy" in the second. The negative connections conjured by these words connect with the prominence of the sickness in the rose.

The word "invisible" is also interesting. The worm is unseen, like the disease in the rose. This makes the illness itself particularly horrifying. It indicates two main aspects of the illness; the first that it is insidious and difficult to detect. Its causes are unknown or unknowable, and can therefore not be either eradicated or cured. The second aspect is that the subtlety of the sickness keeps it under the surface of an apparently healthy whole. The indication appears to be that the casual observer would not detect the illness. However, a person who moves closer to the rose will begin to see the signs of the illness that is in the process of consuming the life of the rose from within.

The words "bed" and "crimson joy" appear to refer to love that has been consummated by sex. This provides further possibilities for interpretation. It could be that the romance of young love was corrupted by sex -- "crimson" could refer to the loss of virginity. From a modern point-of-view, however, the disease could be the deception of one of the partners while the other is faithful. This deception then destroys the relationship from within. This interpretation can be substantiated by the phrase "dark secret love," with the "secret" implying that one of the partners is not being entirely truthful.