In the poem "The sick Rose" by William Blake, can be interpreted in many different ways. It is about someone, telling a rose, that it is sick. And "invisible" worm has stolen into its bed in a "howling storm" and under the cover pf night. The "dark secret love" of this worm is destroying the rose's life. I think there are two major themes; one is love and how it can be destroyed and being ashamed of love.
The first theme is love and how it can be destroyed. The rose symbolizes the beauty of a virgin and the worm a man. The worm fooled the rose into believing that there was true love even thought all the worm had was "dark secret love." The worm found the rose's bed and has taken away her beauty (her virginity). The worm has taken a way a part of the rose, and it has been destroyed. .
The second theme, is being ashamed of love. The rose represents love, and it is sick, and the poem suggests that love is sick as well. The rose doesn't know about it's own sickness this shows how love does not recognize the pain it causes. The worm is invisible and corrupt, the worm performs its work at night. Making the rose enjoy sex but also experience shame, which can also be interpreted as committing sin. These combination love and shame, has destroyed the rose and was something that Blake found perverted and unhealthy. .
"The sick rose" is made up of two verses, both four lines long. The rhyme scheme is ABCB. The syllables in this poem, are 5,6,5,5,5,4,6,5. This mad the poem more direct, which contributes to the theme of death. There is only one type of alliteration which is the "s" sounds. This appears in rose, sick, invisible, flies, storm, crimson, secret, does and destroy.
This poem expresses some of the issues that happen in our culture, very often. Where people don't appreciate love and perform the act of love in a dark way, instead of being truly in love.
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