O Rose thou art sick...

           “The Sick Rose” by William Blake is about a tainted “rose” and how it has been infected by an “invisible worm”. Underneath the horticultural façade of this poem, I've interpreted the “rose” as a maiden and the parasitic “worm” that saps her life can be thought of as either a man or a disease that man has brought upon her. Regardless of which ever one it is, the important detail about this is that “…his dark secret love/Does thy life destroy” (7-8).”    

            The image above is Blake’s illustration and he gives us a clue on the nature of this poem. In the image, you can see a woman emerging from a rose, looking healthy and happy with her face shown. She is surrounded by the flower, in a protective sort of way. The two other women above her are bent over and look ill or in despair. They are surrounded thorns, indicative of their pain. They are also hiding their faces, perhaps of their guilt and shame. The worm in the upper left corner has a phallic shape and it's position is much higher than the two women, suggesting the higher positions men held over women. 

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy:

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy   

                                                       (6-8)

            The second stanza is quite powerful because of the underlying meanings within it. The “worm” can then be thought of as a phallic symbol, when put together with “…thy bed/Of crimson joy:” (5-6). The “worm” is deriving pleasure from entering the “rose” at nighttime, a symbolism for intercourse. The reference to the “crimson joy”, when coupled with the statement regarding the bed, can be thought of as the losing of one’s virginity and the blood that flow when the hymen is broken.  

            Symbolically, if the “rose” does represent a girl, and the “worm” a man, in this time period if they are conducting a secret affair at night, then it can be easily guessed that the woman’s life is being destroyed in many ways. A woman can be thought of as a “fallen woman” if she engages in pre-marital sex, and therefore her reputation could fall, she would not be respected by society, marry into a respectable family and would be more likely to commit suicide for fear of having no future. In this way, her life is being destroyed.  

            Another view of this is to see the “worm” as a venereal disease that the woman has contracted due to the nightly visitations of a man. This is connected with the view that the “worm” enters the “rose” and slowly destroys her life. The woman could be unaware of the disease she has contracted, due to the worm’s “dark secret” (7). In this sense, her life is being destroyed because of the “crimson joy” that she has partaken in.

            In this poem, the speaker puts the blame of the rose’s condition on the nightly visitations of the worm. In other words, the speaker is actually letting the audience know that it is not the fault of the “rose” but rather that of the “worm”. In this sense, William Blake is telling us that the “worm” or in this case, the actions of a man are to blame for the downfall of this “rose”.