The Sick Rose
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 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.
Form
The poem has two stanzas of 4 lines each, having a rhyme scheme of ABCB. When the poem is properly read, there is an ominous rhythm in the short, two beat lines that contribute to the poem’s sense of dread and foreboding. "The Sick Rose" uses a strange meter called anapestic dimeter, meaning that, theoretically, each line should have two ("di") anapests. An anapest is a three syllable foot that has two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.
Commentary
The rose being infected by the worm represents represents the fragile nature of all things beautiful. No matter how beautiful a person, an object, or a relationship may be, there is always the chance that a worm will destroy it, whether it be a misunderstanding, an illness, a natural disaster, etc. This can be seen when the rose, the quintessential representation of love and beauty, becomes corrupted by the worm, representative of the Biblical serpent. Because this poem places such importance on nature through the natural beauty of the rose and how it should not be corrupted, this poem is reflective of nature as the one of the focal point of Romanticism. Worms are quintessentially earthbound, and symbolize death and decay. The “bed” into which the worm creeps denotes both the natural flowerbed and also the lovers’ bed. The rose is sick, and the poem implies that love is sick as well. Yet the rose is unaware of its sickness. Of course, an actual rose could not know anything about its own condition, and so the emphasis falls on the allegorical suggestion that it is love that does not recognize its own ailing state. This results partly from the insidious secrecy with which the “worm” performs its work of corruption—not only is it invisible, it enters the bed at night. This secrecy indeed constitutes part of the infection itself. The “crimson joy” of the rose connotes both sexual pleasure and shame, thus joining the two concepts in a way that Blake thought was perverted and unhealthy. The rose’s joyful attitude toward love is tainted by the aura of shame and secrecy that our culture attaches to love.