The Sick
Rose
-
William Blake
Literal
comprehension:
The poem
'The Sick Rose' is composed by English romantic poet, William Blake. It is a
short lyrical poem composed in two stanzas with four lines (it has two quatrains)
in each stanza having abcd ABCB rhyming pattern. Though it is a very simple
poem in its literal sense, is very rich in symbolic meaning. Literally, it
talks about the destruction of the life of the Rose due to sickness caused by
invisible worm with its dark secret love. On the other hand, it is very
powerful symbolically and has the association with different meanings. The rose
represents several concepts like love, female, innocence, honesty, purity,
truthfulness, nature, etc. similarly, invisible worm represents any unseen or
mysterious force that causes the destruction of every virtues of the life of
the social beings.
Interpretation:
The poem,'
The Sick Rose' is about the destruction of the life of a female due to unwanted
pregnancy caused by rape or any other physical relationship. It is about the
shame of caused by the loss of virginity. Moreover, the poem is about the
hatred of the poet regarding prostitution that transmits the diseases which
ruins the life of the people of the society. In addition, it is the immortality
of the love that ruins the life of the person. It even can be said that the
poem talks about the relationship between the life of innocence and the life of
experience. It shows how life with innocence is shattered by the experience
with selfishness, corruption, violence, etc. It is about the misery of the life
of innocent, ordinary people of the society due to the selfishness, vices and
immortality of the so-called powerful people.
Critical
Analysis:
The poem is
based on the binary opposition representing virtues and vices or good or bad
aspects of the human society. There are few words like 'rose', 'love',
'joy',etc.
representing the good aspects of the life whereas the majority of words like
'sick', 'storm', 'dark', etc representing bad aspects of the life in the poem.
This shows how goodness is always surrounded by evil forces in the society. It
is based on mysticism that within the few lines, few words of the poem, poet
has successfully woven the ideas like love, human society, nature, etc. however
some questions obviously arise while studying the poem that is only sick rose
enough for demonstrating the bad aspects of the human society? What does the
invisible worm that flies in the howling storm means here in the poem? Does the
crimson joy lead the life to the destruction?
Assimilation:
Although the
some ideas of the poem, 'The Sick Rose' are argumentative, it ultimately
succeed to touch the real innocence and experiences of the human life. After
critically examining the poem, I came to recall the story,' Euta premko antya'
by Usha Kiran Regmi.
