Sick Rose Analysis by Al Tayoba

Analysis on the Poem “The Sick Rose” Using Formalism Approach

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 lead us to view love in its complexity. It proves that love could not just make us but, it could sometimes break us. The poem was set in England in the year 1794, where the only job opportunity for women is to get into prostitution. It is about a man who infected his wife with a virus. The virus was from a prostitute whom the man had sex with. The wife was happened to bear a child.

Rose could mean a lot in literature. It could be a metaphor for love or a woman. The worm signifies a virus. It is small so it is aid to be “invisible”. Worm is destructive in nature. It could be that the worm is the “syphilis” which is a common disease during that time. “That flies in the night” means that the virus was incurred and infected the woman in the night where making love is commonly done. The man get the virus also at night with the prostitute. “Howling storm” and “bed of crimson joy” refers to the howling of sex and pleasure. It signifies a man fornicating the prostitute and his wife. “The secret love which thy love destroy” means that they lost the life of their child because of the virus that infected the fruit of their ROSE or LOVE.