The Full Text of “The Sick Rose”
1O Rose thou art sick.
2The invisible worm,
3That flies in the night
4In the howling storm:
5Has found out thy bed
6Of crimson joy:
7And his dark secret love
8Does thy life destroy.
The Full Text of “The Sick Rose”
1O Rose thou art sick.
2The invisible worm,
3That flies in the night
4In the howling storm:
5Has found out thy bed
6Of crimson joy:
7And his dark secret love
8Does thy life destroy.
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“The Sick Rose” Introduction
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"The Sick Rose" was written by the British poet William Blake. First published in Songs of Innocence and Experience in 1794, it is one Blake's best-known poems, while also remaining one of his most enigmatic. In eight short lines, the speaker addresses the "Rose" of the title, telling it that an "invisible worm" has made it sick. This crafty worm has flown through a stormy night to satisfy its "dark secret love" in the rose's "bed"—an action that will "destroy" the rose's life. The poem is filled with symbolism, but there are a wide range of theories about what, exactly, the worm and rose represent. Generally speaking, the worm is a corrupting figure, preying on the innocent life-force of the beautiful rose. Both worm and rose are personified, and the poem is heavy with sexual suggestion—leading many critics to theorize that the poem depicts the oppression of sexuality and desire by the Christian authorities of the day.
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“The Sick Rose” Summary
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Oh rose, you are sick. An unseen worm has flown under the cover of a dark and stormy night.
The worm has discovered your bed of deep red joy. Now, the worm's dark, hidden love is destroying your life.
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“The Sick Rose” Themes
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Death, Destruction, and Innocence
“The Sick Rose” is one of William Blake's most hotly contested poems—there are many theories out there as to what the poem means! 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.
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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.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Sick Rose”
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Line 1
O Rose thou art sick.
"The Sick Rose" opens with apostrophe as the speaker addresses the rose itself. Though this line is simple and spare, it does a lot. The use of "O" makes the poem sound like a kind of lament, as though the speaker is mourning the rose's imminent death. The long /o/ assonance in the first two words—"O Rose"—heightens this effect. The third vowel sound in the poem, "thou," has similarly round, open feel. Together these vowels suggest weariness, but also the rose's beauty, grace, and elegance.
These /o/ vowels also make the sound of the line's final two words all the more pronounced. Both "art" and "sick" are very different sounds from "O," "Rose," and "thou," with two different vowel sounds at work alongside harsher consonants. The final hard /k/ sound of "sick" ends the line on a note of unpleasantness and disease.
The end-stop at the end of the line serves the same purpose, making "sick" visceral and loud. This sets-up the rest of the poem as a kind of explainer that will give the rose—and the reader—more information about why (and how) the rose is sick.
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Lines 2-4
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm: -
Lines 5-6
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy: -
Lines 7-8
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
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“The Sick Rose” Symbols
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The Rose
Like the meaning of the poem more generally, the symbolism of the rose is up for debate. That said, it's definitely symbolic!
First, it's worth considering what roses traditionally represent. They are, of course, beautiful flowers, and thus often appear in literature as symbolic of beauty itself. They often represent a specifically feminine kind of beauty as well (think of how the phrase "an English rose" is sometimes used to describe a woman). Considering that this is a Blake poem, it's also possible to view the rose as a representation of innocence, which, in the real world, becomes corrupted (this is a common theme throughout Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience). Altogether, the rose seems to represent unspoiled beauty and loveliness.
The rose also relates to sexuality. Roses are sometimes associated with the vagina, and this idea seems at play in lines 5 to 6. Here, the speaker states that the worm has found the rose's "bed / of crimson joy." The "crimson joy" provided by the rose relates to sexual satisfaction, while the "bed" itself plays on the twin definition of conventional bed and flowerbed. A bed, of course, is a typical location of sexual activity, and its mention thus heightens the sexual symbolism of the rose at the heart of this poem.
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The Worm
As with the rest of the poem, the symbolism of the worm is open to interpretation. It's certainly no ordinary worm, described in line 2 as "invisible," and in line 3 as capable of flight. While these lines can easily be taken as being figurative—as simply saying that the worm moves very quickly and without being spotted since it's underground—they also help readers recognize that the worm is more than a literal worm in the poem.
On that note, worms carry a long history of symbolism in poetry, religion, and mythology. They're usually linked with death and decay (think about the macabre description of a corpse as "worm food"), and that association is certainly in play here. They often connote sneakiness and might be used to describe a conniving person (who "worms" their way into a group, for instance). Broadly speaking, it's fair to say the worm in the poem is a symbol of dark, destructive forces. Perhaps these forces relate to dishonest, slimy members of society or the basest impulses of society itself.
The worm also has a "dark secret" desire to consume the rose, suggesting that the worm can be read as a symbol of repressed sexuality. Indeed, it seems that it's the specifically secretive nature of the worm's desire—not desire itself—that the poem portrays as damaging and deadly. Perhaps, then, the worm further symbolizes the consequences of unhealthy societal attitudes towards sex, particularly, in this case, those imposed by the institutions of the Christian religion (a common target for Blake's poetry).
And of course, if the rose represents a woman, then the worm can be thought of as representing the male sexual organ. The worm is a phallus (a penis-like shape) that seeks to penetrate the rose. Again, it would be wrong to view the poem as a general criticism of sexuality. Instead, the reader is asked to consider what it is about the worm that makes its desire so grotesque and unnatural.
It's also worth considering that "worm" hasn't always meant the typical earthworm (and this worm is certainly not one of those!). Over the centuries the word has denoted serpents, snakes, dragons, and others too. Given that Blake's poetry is steeped in Christianity, it's possible that the worm here also relates to the serpent in the biblical Book of Genesis, who tempts Eve to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree—and thus causes the Fall of mankind. That same devilish desire for destruction is on show in this poem here.
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“The Sick Rose” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Alliteration appears in the poem's final two lines:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.Here, alliteration links different words together: "love" with "life" and "dark" with "does" and "destroy." This is no coincidence. In fact, these words essentially tell the poem in miniature. The 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 particular quality of the /d/ consonant is important too. In general, the poem sounds soft, its gentle, hushed tones creating a quiet atmosphere. The /d/ sound, by contrast, is a loud, voiced consonant. Here, the sudden alliteration gives the poem an air of violence. The heavy, thudding sound reflects the catastrophic effect that the worm's actions will have on the rose.
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Apostrophe
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Assonance
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Consonance
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End-Stopped Line
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Enjambment
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Personification
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"The Sick Rose" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Thou
- Art
- Howling
- Found out
- Thy
- Crimson
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Archaic form of "you."
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Sick Rose”
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Form
"The Sick Rose" is a small, compact poem consisting of two quatrains. The simple form makes the poem feel all the more like an allegory, a short tale with a hidden message.
The poem can also be divided into two sentences—one short, and one long. Line 1 states the facts: the rose is sick. The rest of the poem (lines 2-8) then seems to wriggle down the page, mimicking the movement of the worm that has infiltrated the rose's bed.
The stanza break serves an important function here. It's not until line 5 that the long sentence comes to its main verb phrase, "has found." This creates a kind of lasting tension and final release that mirrors the worm's quest to satisfy his "dark secret love."
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Meter
"The Sick Rose" has a very loose meter that could be called anapestic dimeter—meaning that there are two anapests, feet with a da-da-DUM rhythm, per line. Again, though, the meter is very rough; while most lines do indeed have two feet, these are often a combination of anapests and iambs (da-DUM). Take the first stanza. The only true line of anapestic dimeter here is line 2; lines 1 and 3 open with iambs, while line 4 closes with an iamb:
O Rose | thou art sick.
The invis- | ible worm,
That flies | in the night
In the howl- | ing storm:Things get even more ambiguous when considering that a foot like "O Rose" could possibly be read as a spondee (stressed-stressed, "O Rose"). For the most part though, every line has just two stressed beats. This lends the meter a feeling of rhythm and consistency, while the varying number of unstressed beats keeps things a bit unsettling.
Line 7 is the only line in the poem that unambiguously has three stressed beats:
And his dark secret love
Here the poem clusters stresses together to suggest the violence of the worm's desires; as he forces his way into the rose's bed, his presence on the poetic line becomes harder to escape.
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Rhyme Scheme
"The Sick Rose" has a regular rhyme scheme, with the second and fourth lines of both stanzas rhyming together. The poem, then, follows a pattern of:
ABCB DEFE
This pattern is fairly typical of Blake's poetry, and in particular of the poems in Songs of Innocence and Experience, the collection from which this poem is taken. It's also the rhyme scheme of a ballad stanza.
The rhyme words effectively tell the poem in miniature: worm / storm / joy / destroy. The steadiness of the rhyme scheme, combined with the poem's short lines, quatrain stanzas, and highly symbolic imagery, makes the poem feel like an allegory, a simple story with a hidden meaning.
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“The Sick Rose” Speaker
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The speaker in "The Sick Rose" never refers to themselves directly. This is in keeping with the poem being a sort of allegory, less about any specific perspective and more about the message at hand.
This type of vantage point is also typical for the Songs of Innocence and Experience, from which this poem is taken. Here, the speaker addresses the rose through apostrophe (the rose is personified, but it doesn't answer the speaker). The speaker has a kind of omniscient knowledge, able to perceive things that the rose can't. Ultimately, the speaker is a kind of messenger arriving too late. Though the speaker delivers a warning to the rose about its fate, nothing can be done about it. The speaker also delivers this message to the reader, who is implicitly asked to consider what the rose's sickness represents.
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“The Sick Rose” Setting
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"The Sick Rose" takes place in a garden, or another place where a red rose might grow. On a dark and stormy night, the wind "howling," a worm moves undetected through the dirt to reach and penetrate the rose's "bed / Of crimson joy"—the flowerbed, on one level, but also symbolically a regular old bed where people would partake in "crimson joy" (i.e., have sex). This "bed" also might be taken as an allusion to female genitalia.
The poem is written in the present tense—the rose is sick, but isn't dead yet. The nighttime setting and the noise of the storm heighten the sense that this is an illicit union, one that the rose doesn't want and probably isn't aware of yet. This fits in with the idea that the poem, at least in part, is about the shame and secrecy that surround sex and desire. Desire is fulfilled in the poem, but in a way that is hidden and grotesque. The sense of both time and place in the poem contribute to this unease.
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Sick Rose”
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Literary Context
"The Sick Rose" first appeared in Blake's 1794 publication Songs of Innocence and Experience. The first sequence of poems from this book had appeared a few years earlier as Songs of Innocence. "The Sick Rose" is taken from the later Experience sequence of poems, and thus is part of an overall effort to show what happens to innocence, happiness, joy, love—all the things that are positive and good about life—when they encounter the real world.
Other poems in Experience similarly depict nature in a state of corruption, usually at the hands of humankind. Poems worth comparing to this one include "A Poison Tree," "Ah! Sunflower," and "The Garden of Love." In poems like "The Blossom," meanwhile, nature exerts a loving influence on the world, expressing God's love and care for his creation.
Worms also appear elsewhere in Blake's poetry, though it's important to remember that the word could also relate to other mythical creatures—like serpents and dragons. Indeed, this "invisible" worm does not seem like a typical earthworm at all. In The Four Zoas, Blake states plainly that "man is a worm." With that in mind, it's tempting to view the corrupting desire of the worm in the poem with the terrible reality that man has constructed within God's creation—which, in Blake's view, has totally lost touch with how humankind is meant to live. It's also possible to view the worm as an echo of the serpent in the Bible who tempts Eve to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree.
Historical Context
In terms of what's actually on the page, "The Sick Rose" is devoid of historical context. As with many of Blake's poems, this one seems to exist both in ancient history, the present, and the future—indeed, it's this quality that often gives Blake's poetry a prophetic quality. That's not to say, of course, that Blake wasn't intensely aware—and critical—of his own historical situation. He was a fierce critic of the Industrial Revolution, the beginning of which saw the growth of factories in England and a rapid increase in machine-based labor. Blake felt that humankind was losing touch with what made it human: joy, communion with nature, desire, and love. It's tempting, then, to read some of that perceived societal sickness in the ill health of the rose.
The poem is often related more specifically to attitudes towards sex during the 18th century. Blake was highly critical of the dominant church institution—the Church of England—for the way in which it portrayed sex as something to be ashamed of, and desire as something that ought to be repressed. The poem has clear sexual undertones, but the union between rose and worm is not a healthy one. The worm desires the rose, but can only fulfil this desire through secrecy.
Blake believed in a spirit world, including invisible “larvae” spirits which are similar to demons, and are capable of travel from one person’s mind to another (these spirits are discussed in the works of the influential fourth-century theologian, Saint Augustine). Crucially, Blake also believed that sexuality should be embraced, not suppressed. In Blake’s view, the denial of sexual desire could have damaging and destructive consequences for both the individual and society more generally.
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More “The Sick Rose” Resources
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External Resources
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Blake's Radicalism — A clip in which author Iain Sinclair discusses Blake's political views.
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The Poem Illustrated — See the poem as it originally appeared, complete with Blake's own artwork.
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Songs of Innocence and Experience — Check out the full text of the book in which "The Sick Rose" appears.
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Britten's Blake — A musical setting of the poem by composer Benjamin Britten.
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Invisible Worms — An interesting article that hunts for the inspiration behind the destructive worm in this poem.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by William Blake
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