The Sick Rose - Blake Flashcards
The Sick Rose - summary
A mysterious poem about corruption and destruction. The rose symbolises innocence and beauty, while the worm represents hidden decay, desire, and repression. Blake suggests that suppressed or exploitative love leads to ruin. A critic of rigid morality, he championed free love and condemned relationships based on control and hypocrisy.
“Rose”
Apostrophe - the speaker addresses the rose itself
Symbolism = natural beauty, majesty of creation, female sexuality
Connotations/allusions = the corruption of innocence by the harsh realities of the world
Synecdoche = vagina, a woman newly stripped of her virginity and implicit infected by STD
Capitalisation = a woman’s name, representation for all women
“Invisible worm”
Connotate = death, destruction and decay
Symbolism = determined figure and phallic representation of the male sexual organ, which seeks to penetrate the rose
Allusions - the way that earthly society inevitably corrupts even the purest and loveliest of beings - suggests something insidious and burrowing that will destroy
Phallic imagery, Reference to dragon used in Old English = symbolism = adult sexuality destroying the young
Allusion - serpent in Genesis and the story of The Fall of Adam, Eve and all of mankind = invisibility of the oem may refer to the ‘hidden’ nature of the devil, penetrating evil
“Thou art sick!”
Personification = corruption of an innocent and untouched women
Contradictions = the conventions of the Romantic era, women were idolised as non sexual and pure
Moral and spiritual sickness - the abrupt and unsympathetic exclamation mark
“And his dark secret love/Does thy life destroy.”
Alliteration = sonic connection between “love” and “life” reflects how “love” has a major effect on “life” in the poem—in fact, “love,” when “secret,” can end “life” itself.
The “dark” adjective, meanwhile, relates to the “invisible worm,” with “does” relating to his action, and “destroy” describing the consequences of his actions.
Darkness, the worm’s illicit activities, and destruction, are all part of the same package.
The heavy, thudding sound reflects the catastrophic effect that the worm’s actions will have on the rose.
“Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy:”
Explicit sexual Symbolism - vagina, centred on that node of pleasure. Rose looks like a vulva
Double meaning = both a flowerbed and a regular bed, where lovers meet.
Colour imagery, “crimson,” a deep red that connotes sexual appetite and vigor.
Anatomical reference, to the vagina itself (indeed, this association is behind the word “deflowering,” which means to take someone’s virginity).
Structure
Enjambment: Suggests a journey, as the worm moves through the night and burrows into the rose.
End-stopped lines: Divide the poem into two uneven parts—highlighting the rose’s helplessness and the worm’s violation.
Two quatrains: Reinforce the poem’s allegorical nature, giving it a fable-like quality.
Stanza break: Delays the main verb (“has found”), creating tension that mirrors the worm’s dark pursuit.
