1. The poem describes a sick rose and a worm that manages to locate the rose's
"bed of crimson joy." The worm destroys the rose with his "dark secret love," a
not so subtle reference to some kind of destructive sexuality.
Rose – This literary symbol is used in three ways:
· 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. It therefore links sex and death.
The penetration of the rose by the hidden canker worm can, therefore, be understood as the
covert sex which destroys the virginity of an ‘innocent' and thus corrupts her own expression
of love.
Worm – Literally, this refers to the canker worm which attacks rosebuds. Metaphorically:
· Worms are associated with death and decay, since dead bodies are said to be food
for worms
· In medieval English, ‘worm' was also used to refer to a snake or serpent. It therefore
may allude to the image of the snake / serpent as the seducer of Eve in the story of
the Fall of humankind in Genesis. Here it links sexuality and shame, just as, after the
Fall, Adam and Eve ‘know they are naked' and try to hide from God
· The invisibility of the worm echoes the Christian teaching that thedevil lurks unseen
and is a master of disguise
· ‘Worm' also conveys phallic associations. Blake believed that when humankind ‘fell'
and the sexes were separated, it had an impact on their capacity for sexual ecstasy.
Capacity for ecstatic union was reduced from whole body involvement to the genitals
alone.
Flies in the night – Traditionally, night is the time when demons, witches and wild beasts
seek their prey and ghosts appear. It therefore suggests that this ‘worm' is active at the time
when people are most prey to their fears and fantasies.
howling storm – This suggests times of ungovernable, frightening turmoil and passion that
are potentially destructive.
Has found out – This may be an echo of Psalms 90:8 which refers to the exposure of
‘secret sins'
Crimson – Usually denoting passion, blood and shame, crimson and scarlet are also colours
used to describe sin in the Old Testament. (SeeIsaiah 1:18). That the worm has ‘found out
thy bed / Of crimson joy' suggests, possibly, that ideas of shame, sin and secrecy have
reached to the innermost part of the person. Its capacity for ‘joy' is now infected by such life-

2. denying emotions, bringing it death. Literally, the ‘crimson joy' may be describing the blood
shed at the loss of virginity
An important feature to note reading any poem within Songs of Innocence and Experience is
that it allows the marginalized figures of society a voice. A voice in which their story can be
told. Innocence would seem to the be the more controlled,ignorant perception of the truth.
Whereas Experience breaks down Songs of Innocence and shows the real horror of the
situation.
Blake does this brilliantly by the use of contrast and it is when the 'sister poem' in Songs of
Experience is read and that voice of the truth comes through - it forces you not to ignore it.
Where the two books come together and promptly force the reader to see the truth and not
revert back to ignorance.
In terms of imagery,the idea of Innocence is strong in reference to children which then
comes back to the point of the marginalized figures. As children were a strong labour force
within factories working under dangerous conditions and treated and slaves in poverty. Blake
also uses natural images such as flowers in his poetry. Which in the grand scheme of things
represents the children. The bright,young and fragile beings who are being smothered in the
cold,dark smoke of London town. This all brings into terms the idea of death.
Songs of Innocence almost grounds the reader into a state of security. Secure in the
sense that we are living in a model society that is prospering and above all others.
Yet,Songs of Experience destroys that foundation and pleads for us to do something
about it. A scar which demands healing.
The sick rose –an analysis
What makes it so special? First, it’s because Blake, with his artist’s inner eye, thinks
beyond the easy, lazy cliché. Lion = brave, moon = pale wanderer, rose = beauty … those
are the normal associations, but not for Blake. What he describes here can be seen by

3. anyone who’s ever set foot in a garden, but he defies poetic convention, forces us to look
at the rose in a different way – corrupted, diseased, dying.
Woven into the poem, there’s a second powerful image, implicitly sexual. The worm
finds its way into the rose’s ‘bed of crimson joy’ and again corrupts from within.
Every time I come back to the poem, there seems to be a new layer of meaning, rippling
out from the center. It’s about the impermanence of beauty, it’s about questioning long-held
beliefs, it’s about sexuality, it’s about Blake’s views on England, echoing Jerusalem
again. But none of these ideas are presented as arguments. Poetry works by suggestion. It
doesn’t ask me to agree or disagree. It just demands that I reconsider my own experience
and preconceived ideas.
What about the structure? First, what does Blake do with words? Not too much. He
doesn’t try to be poetic, loading lines with fancy adjectives. Had he done so, he might
have detracted from the symbolism. Nevertheless, there’s a master craftsman at work,
and words are carefully chosen. The rose isn’t ‘unwell’ or ‘fading’ or ‘poorly’. It’s ‘sick’:
monosyllabic, shocking, isolated at the end of that first line. It’s a ‘howling’ storm – you
hear th with blood, and the consonant clusters in the word somehow give it sensuality.
In his fascinating book Psychological Types, psychoanalyst C. G. Jung refers to
William Blake's assertion that human beings can be divided into two categories. Jung
quotes from Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" as follows:
These two classes of men are always upon earth . . . the Prolific and the Devouring.
In other words, there are those who create and produce and those who devour what
is produced. These two types of humans are to be met with everywhere in our daily
life. The devourers, who are sometimes called vampires these days, do not usually
behave in a hostile manner. They are often seemingly kindly and innocent. They are
attracted to the prolific people by admiration and affection. They can be very
injurious to the people they love and who love them in return. Often they are men
who are preying on women--or women who are preying on men. But there are also
men who prey on other men and women who prey on other women.
"The Sick Rose" may have been intended as an example of the relationship that
often exists between the devourer and the prolific. This kind of parasitical
relationship has been going on among living creatures almost since the beginnings
of life about three and a half billion years ago. Blake's poem can be read as a
warning. If you happen to be one of the prolific types, look out for people who admire
and cultivate and flatter you. They may or may not be predators, and they may or
may not be aware of what they are doing. The invisible worm that finds a home
inside the beautiful rose cannot help being what it is, a predator. It may love the rose

4. for its beauty and fragrance, as well as for the comfortable home and delicious meal
the beautiful leaves provide.
Elsewhere in his Psychological Types, Jung writes:
Blake's intuition did not err when he described the two classes of men as "prolific"
and "devouring." Just as, biologically, the two modes of adaptation work equally well
and are successful in their own way, so too with the typical attitudes. The one
achieves its end by a multiplicity of relationships, the other by monopoly.