The Sick Rose (William
Blake)
“The Sick Rose” is not a poem about lost love, or even death, as it may seem at first - it is a poem about the loss of sexual innocence to a “rogue”. This can be seen not only from the lines of the poem, but also from the illustration that accompanies it. The first stanza states that the rose is sick and who made it sick. The second stanza, however, evokes sexual imagery – “bed”, “crimson joy”, “dark secret love” and ends by telling the rose that this “worm” (also can be a sexual symbol) destroys the rose’s life. The rose can be a symbol of many things, but a complete rose is a symbol of perfection, while a pink rose (we know it is pink from the illustration) represents first love (perhaps the Rose loves this “rogue” – whom we know to be a “rogue” from the imagery associated with it: “invisible”, “flies in the night”, “howling storm”). The illustration reinforces this aspect, as well: not only are we shown that this rose is pink, but we also see it on the ground, on a bed of dirt gathered under it, with a worm/catterpillar nibbling on one of the leaves, and two fairylike creatures prostrated in what seems to be grief, and, perhaps most importantly, something penetrating the rose.
A Poison Tree (William
Blake)
This beautiful poem is about revenge. The imagery is clear and built around depicting the sort of hatred that must be fed achieve such proportions. Interestingly, we are told right in the first two lines that this is not a case of undiscriminating hatred – since the speaker said that, by telling their friend about the anger, it passed –we are left with the idea that this person can control this wrath. In the next two lines, we are told simply that, by holding this anger inside and not voicing it, it grew. So far, the reader is left to wonder if this is done on purpose or if it simply happens. However, the next stanza makes it clear that not only is it done on purpose, it is also taken good care of. Since the speaker was careful not only to water the wrath and sun it, but also to conceal this wrath from the hated person, we know this is a careful, planning speaker. The next two lines, which are part of the third stanza, tell the reader of the fruit this care bore – “an apple bright”, and the next two tell the reader how this foe, knowing the “bright apple” was the speaker’s, looked at it with what we can presume to be envy. In the last stanza, the foe secretly enters the garden at night to steal the apple, not knowing it is an apple “made” of hatred, and eats it, right under the tree. In the next morning, as the speaker looks out, sees their foe dead, killed by the trap the speaker set for the foe.
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Curiously, what actually caused the foe’s death wasn’t the apple the speaker “bore” – it was the foe’s own envy and malice, stealing into the garden to take what wasn’t theirs. The illustration adds to the somber atmosphere through the use of the dark colors and, of course, by depicting a man dead on the floor. Blake’s poem is a good reflection of what a good trap can do – ensnare and kill a foe through the foe’s own weakness, stupidity and greed.
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