The Sick Rose

By William Blake 1757–1827 William Blake

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.

 Ó ruža, tvoja choroba!
 Neviditeľný červ
 Ktorý prichádza cez noc
 V  hroznej búrke,

 Našiel tvoju posteľ
 Karmínovo -červenej radosti
 a jeho tmavá ,zakázaná láska
 Ničí tvôj život.

  *The poem’s form is extremely compact, consisting of two quatrains with a rhyming scheme of ABCB, which produces an ominous rhythm.

  *The rose itself symbolises this innocence, and suggestions that it represents love, nature and even pre-industrial England fall under this more encompassing category.

  *there is the suggestion of contamination (the  worm is “invisible”) or disease , Syphilis

  *These days, in the west, it is hard to imagine that childbirth could be so dangerous. But in Blake’s day and still in parts of the world today – childbirth was and is a major killer. At the time these poems were published (in the late 1700s), many many women  died in childbirth: young, fit women – it must have been a great tragedy for families and for relationships and, yes, for the men they left behind.

  *Sex. Death. Innocence. Experience. Eight lines, yet this poem has it all.