A_Rose_By_Any_Other_Name

A Rose By Any Other Name A Rose By Any Other Name While symbolism is found in both of Blake and Wordsworth’s works we have been studying in class, the images’ meanings and importance vary greatly in the two poems. However, both authors are able to use regular scenes in nature to represent deeper understandings of love, solitude and life. As we have found in studying Blake’s Songs of Experience, the author loves to use symbolism to ‘mourn’ the harsh experiences of adulthood and how it can destroy what was once good and innocent. In Blake’s ‘The Sick Rose,’ a rose exists literally and as a literary symbol, most likely associated with love. On the surface, the poem seems to be speaking of a rose who has been infected by an ‘invisible worm’ that has crawled into its flower bed during a howling storm. The secret presence of the worm is destroying the sick rose, and the rose will soon die. However beyond the literal meaning lies a metaphor, as is the case with almost all of Blake’s works. Much like in ‘London’, Blake uses the image of a worm, most commonly associated with filth and post-mortem decay, to represent the sexually transmitted Venereal disease and ultimately, death. The poem, rose, blake’s, wordsworth’s, works, nature, life, both, worm, wordsworth, two, love, lead, however, disease, daffodils, blake, bed, associated, able, ‘the, while, understandings, tetrameter, symbolism, studying, simple, sick, shame, seems, scene, says, rhythm, represent, reader, observing