Answer: William Blake says in the poem ‘The Sick Rose ‘, that the Rose is on the verge of destruction and decay ,it has
turned sick because the invisible worm has preyed on it
. The beautiful rose in its bed ,is inflicted by the harmful worm and is destroyed.
Why is the Rose sick?
An invisible worm that flies in the howling night has found the rose’s bed of crimson joy
. Thus the worm destroys the innocence and purity of the rose which is symbolic of love. As the worm affects the rose with his evil intention, the rose looks pale and sick.
What is happening in The Sick Rose?
The Sick Rose: summary
‘The Sick Rose’ is easy enough to summarise. The speaker addresses a rose flower which is diseased, because some foreign agent (described as an invisible worm)
has discovered the rose bed and is destroying the flower’s vitality
.
What is the theme of The Sick Rose?
In his poem The Sick Rose, Blake uses a mixture of symbolism, ambiguity, simplicity and complexity. The main theme of the poem is
a worm penetrating a bed of crimson joy
, this symbolizing the loss of innocence and love.
What does the rose represent in The Sick Rose?
According to medieval tradition, it represents
chastity / virginity
and thus was associated with young girls. It signifies love, especially romantic passion. It is also linked with mortality, a sign of the transience of human love and beauty, because it blooms, smells sweetly and then dies.
What does a rose symbolize?
Classically, roses symbolise
love and romance
however their meaning can extend way beyond that. The red rose is a universal symbol of love across many cultures but beyond that, the rose can symbolise a variety of feelings depending on their variety, colour and number.
What destroys the life of the rose?
In the second stanza of ‘The Sick Rose’
the worm
finds the rose’s bed. The rose is afflicted with the worm’s “dark secret love” and has its life destroyed. The worm, which clearly represents a phallus, kills the rose—the woman’s, virginity.
What figure of speech is O Rose Thou Art Sick?
A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction, a thing, or a nonhuman form as if it were a person. William Blake’s “O Rose, thou art sick!” is one example; Donne’s “Death, be not proud” is another.
What is the structure of the Sick Rose?
“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, as in line 7: And his dark sec-ret love.
Why is the poem The Sick Rose allegorical?
William Blake’s “The Sick Rose” could be read as an
allegory for the corruption of innocence
. The rose could symbolize innocence, and the worm could be what’s corrupting it. The poem could also be interpreted as an allegory for sexual desire. The worm’s lust for the rose could be what destroys it.
Is the sick rose a romantic poem?
A potentially surprising aspect of ‘The Sick Rose’ is how short the poem is, particularly compared to others in the ‘English Romantic Verse’ collection which can extend across tens of stanzas. With only two stanzas, each made up of four short lines, the entirety of the poem can be read very quickly.
What is the rhyme of the Sick Rose?
The rhyme scheme is
ABCB
. The scansion is difficult to place, due to a lack of pattern; the stanzas are asymmetrical: the first has syllables of 5,6,5,5, and the second of 5,4,6,5. Punctuation is also irregular: there is no comma [,] after “O Rose”, and yet there is a comma [,] after “worm”.
What does the rose represent in the poem?
The Rose as a
symbol of love, beauty and virtue
in poetry, literature, music and art. The rose is a popular symbol of love, beauty and virtue in poetry, literature, music and art. The rose appears as a recurring symbol in the greatest love poems in the English language.
What does Crimson Joy mean in the Sick Rose?
Thy bed of crimson joy” simply refers to
the rose’s beautiful red color
; “his dark secret love” simply refers to the worm’s attraction to the rose’s color and the sweet taste of its nectar.
What does the dark secret love of the worm do to the rose?
So the expression ‘dark secret love’ means love that corrupts the rose insidiously in the darkness of night. Here the poet simply expressed that the dark secret love of the worm
destroys the life of the rose
.
What is the spiritual meaning of rose?
All roses symbolize
God’s love at work
in the world, but different colors of roses also symbolize different spiritual concepts. … Red roses mean passion and sacrifice. Yellow roses mean wisdom and joy. Pink roses mean gratitude and peace. Purple or lavender roses mean wonder, awe, and change for the better.
