William Blake `The Sick Rose`

Explicate The Sick Rose ' What clues indicate that this is poem about the awakening of human sexuality

William Blake 's poem , The Sick Rose ' depicts the awakening of the human sexuality through the use of metaphors . In the poem , the Rose symbolizes a woman . It also symbolizes the love and beauty commonly associated with a female . However , in the context of sexuality , the rose specifically represents a woman 's vagina or her virginity . As stated in the poem , the rose 's life is destroyed which possibly symbolizes that

On the other hand

, the worm symbolizes a male . It may also represent a male 's sexual organ in the context of sexuality . However , in the poem 's case , the worm also symbolizes the dark secret love ' that it brings to the rose or the woman . In other words , while the creature symbolizes love , it also causes shame or pain to the rose or the woman by causing it to rot and die , which is what most worms do to flowers and plants

The poem illustrates the awakening of human sexuality in the sense that the rose , which symbolizes the woman , loses its innocence or its virginity and becomes sick because of the worm , which symbolizes the man . The man secretly crept onto the woman 's bed and makes her experience sex for the first time . Other clues in the poem that support this interpretation are the words , the invisible worm ' in the howling storm (Blake , 2008 ) and bed of crimson joy (Blake , 2008 In the poem it was depicted that worm , which was invisibly , secretly crept into rose in the night during a storm . The worm or the man is invisible simply because his actions and intentions toward the rose or the woman are secret . The howling storm possibly represents the night when the rose allowed the worm to experience its crimson joy or allowed sexual intercourse , which further indicates that the rose or the woman in the poem is a virgin

Furthermore , the howling storm could represent the passion of the worm for the rose or the man for the woman . However , this passion is destructive in nature as it causes the rose to rot and become ill . In short , even though the woman , in the form of the rose , experienced a sexual awakening , she is unaware that she became sick

Moreover , the rose 's sickness is not necessarily a physical ailment but rather an issue of morality . In the poem , the speaker was telling the rose that it is sick because she allowed the expression of her crimson joy . The rose or the woman becomes sick in the sense that because it secretly allowed the worm into its bed even though she is not supposed to do so . As a result , the image of innocence and purity of the woman is forever tainted in the eyes of other people , making her sick

It could then be deduced that the poem does not only indicate an awakening of human sexuality...