A_Critical_Interpretation_Of_William_Blake’s_The_Sick_Rose

A Critical Interpretation Of William Blake’s The Sick Rose A Critical Interpretation of William Blake’s The Sick Rose 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. I am convinced that this poem was written as a stab at the homosexual community of London in an effort to persuade those who transgressed, against the theological norms of Blake’s mindset, into repentance of their iniquities. The author begins the poem in a pitiful, judgmental tone, paralleling his subject with an ill flower, hence the title. Blake uses the rose, which has historically signified femininity, to provide the reader with a sense of the homosexual’s frail, feminine nature. The "invisible worm that flies by night”, is a bold reference to the turbulent penis of the sick rose, whose debauched behaviors are performed as surreptitiously as possible amidst passionate caterwauling. “Thy bed of crimson joy” is indicative of the bloody berth upon which acts of unnatural love are expressed in an atypical sexual relationship. The shedding of blood further illustrates a significant theological concept that no doubt Blake was trying to convey; the outpour of lifeblood has been rose, sick, poem, blake, theological, written, thy, social, night, invisible, blake’s, been, worm, work, william, upon, tyranny, subject, storm, sense, secret, reader, poems, nature, mental, love, joy, howling, homosexual, having, flies, crimson, concerns, both, book