In another context, the woman is blissfully unaware that her lover has been found out, and finally, the husband or "wronged" man must tell her he knows, and their love is over. The plot is actually quite simple, but Blake's eloquent use of words makes the actual telling much more complex and interesting.
The rose, unaware its' love is perverted; takes joy in the sensual pleasures of love, which Blake seems to be saying is unnatural and unhealthy. He writes, "thy bed of crimson joy: / and his dark secret love / Does thy life destroy" (Blake). The rose lives in a blissful bed of joy, unaware that sensual love is still a societal evil. Blake indicates that the rose should feel guilty for this "perversion" of love, and does not, which makes the rose even guiltier in his eyes. What began as a simple poem about a dying rose has taken on much deeper implications about society's view of love and pleasure. Roses give pleasure to the eyes by their beauty and to the nose by their scent, but it is not acceptable for the rose to take pleasure, too. Thus, Blake has revealed the double standard that has plagued men and women for all time. Men ("worms") can take pleasure, but women cannot. Thus, the rose also represents all women who secretly, or not so secretly, take sensual pleasure from their relationships. This "dark secret love" is destroying the rose's relationships, but it is also destroying the rose itself, until it dies, leaving its flowerbed fully infected by the "invisible worm" (Blake). It is interesting...
The man is ugly and evil, but perseveres, while the rose is beautiful but fragile and cannot survive. It is this image of fragile womanhood that helps contribute to the feeling that women are not to receive pleasure from their relationships, and helps add to the double standard so obvious in this poem.
The words of this poem indicated just how powerful just a few lines can be. Blake has managed to pack incredible meaning and symbolism into this poem's eight lines. The central image initially seems to be of a dying rose, but picking apart the poem indicates there is much more to the core of the poem than a simple flower. Style, poetic elements, and a great understanding of poetic method come together to fill these lines with stark images that break men and women down into black and white, right and wrong.
In conclusion, this short poem indicates how important literary elements can be to add depth, meaning, and symbolism to a poem. The poem is dramatic, and touches the reader even though it is short and seemingly simple on the surface. Blake's work shows that a poem does not need to be long and rambling to create a sense of purpose and deep meaning. It is eloquent and utterly readable at the same time.
William Blake was never fully appreciated in his own time but is still an influence on literary, political and theological analyses long after his death. While the amount of modern literary criticism that now exists should hold testament to his importance, Blake and his visions, pastoral-like settings and illuminated writings shaped the modern literary canon and paved the way for others. Specifically his works "The Divine Image," its companion poem
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
societal expectations play a part in "The Sorrowful Woman." The protagonist in Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman" demonstrates not only the ways in which people's lives can become compromised and limited by their attempts to meet the expectations of others but also the ways in which we each internalize those expectations. This is the real harm that limiting attitudes like racism and sexism have, as Godwin shows us:
The same is true of politics, where there are few women political leaders, and the United States has never seen a woman president or vice-president. It is interesting to note that Wollstonecraft hopes women will "grow more and more masculine" in order to compete with men, and yet, Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been criticized for that very attribute, pointing to how little real difference there is between today
Because I was happy upon the heath, And smiled among the winter's snow, They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe. And because I am happy and dance and sing, They think they have done me no injury, And are gone to praise God and his priest and king, Who make up a heaven of our misery." In these two poems, Mark Blake was allegorically relating the importance
This reading also featured Ginsberg's "Howl." Along with the rest of the world, the attendees at the reading also provided wide acclaim to this particular work. Indeed, the poem was seen as groundbreaking in the struggle against the destructive American powers that be at the time. Indicative of this is the fact that Howl and Other Poems was banned for obscenity shortly after its publication. Despite this, the work was