The Sick Rose by William Blake

 

The Sick Rose

By William Blake

 

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.

 

The poem was written by William Blake and it was first published in Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1974. This is one of his most enigmatic poems and is filled with sexual symbolism. There are various theories about what exactly the worm and the rose represent. In the poem, the worm is presented as an agent of corruption, preying on the innocence of the rose. The poem is heavy with sexual imagery, leading many to believe that it reflects the oppression of sexuality and desire by the Christianity during his times.

 

Death, Destruction and Innocence

 

There are many theories as to what is the meaning of the poem. What is clear, though, is that the poem features two main characters: a rose, and an “invisible worm” that has made the rose sick. If the rose is read as a symbol, as it often is, for the natural beauty and majesty of creation, then the poem becomes an allegory for such beauty's inevitable destruction—for the fact that 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.

Roses, with their complex network of colorful petals, often represent both love and loveliness in literature, and that seems to be what's happening in the poem as well. In its mention of the flower's “crimson joy,” the poem associates the rose with vibrant, natural beauty. But this rose is also “sick,” thanks to the “invisible worm” that's tracked the rose down.

Roses, like all plants, do literally face various dangers from worms, bugs, insects, and other pests. The beauty of the rose offers no protection against these kinds of external threats. On one level, then, the worm might represent the idea that death, destruction, and decay come for all living things. The worm—a creature of the dirt, burrowing deep in the dark muck of the earth—may also represent the way that 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 die.

It’s worth remembering that this poem appears in Blake's Songs of Experience, which offers a kind of real-world take on the innocent perspectives and ideas presented in the poet's earlier Songs of Innocence. While the former book celebrates the majesty of creation, the Songs of Experience show how this creation is corrupted and destroyed—an idea that seems to line right up with the worm's destruction of the rose.

 

 

Sex and Desire

 

“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 so often 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 linked to the 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 the 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 “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 worm’s 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 it’s the “dark[ness]” and secrecy of the worm’s love that “destroys” the rose’s 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 is usually life-affirming, here it’s a killer. And though the poem doesn’t delve too deeply into what makes this love so corrupt, it’s the worm’s distinguishing feature of invisibility that makes this union so grotesque. The rose doesn’t even necessarily know of the worm’s existence, adding another unsettling layer of seediness and secrecy.

In the unhealthy union between worm and rose, then, sex and desire cease to be joyful, (re)productive, or creative. Though sex is the method by which the human race maintains its presence on this planet, here sex—or its suppression—is a destructive, evil force. The worm is invisible, both there and not there. That is, though sexual desire is ever-present, its natural fulfillment depends upon the prevailing attitudes towards sex. Arguably, then, the sickness of the rose stands in for the sickness of repressed sexuality in general. In other words, the poem suggests that society has lost perspective on the naturalness—and innocent joy—of sex.