after looking back on last night's entry, i realised how stupid and emo it was. i hate that. anyhow, i'm all happy now, yay. and i'm seeing helen on friday, yay. and i have a band practise tomorrow, so i'm even more happy. i have an appointment with a counsellor today at 3, she's gonna buy me coffee. actually, i'm having espresso. peace. : P ******* The Sick Rose: a Critique Lloyd ‘ Pink’ Hesselberg The Sick Rose is an ambiguous piece of poetry in that it is fairly difficult to pick out its exact meaning from the text. I will be analysing the poem’s form, structure, language and content in order to explore some interpretations that may be relevant to the poem. Personally, I believe that the poem is an erotic or a romantic piece. I believe so due to the sexual imagery used throughout the poem, particularly in the second stanza. The invisible worm may perhaps be a metaphor for the sperm, the fact that it flies in the night a reference to lovemaking. Other such references include Rose’s crimson joy, crimson being associated with passion. I also believe that the poem may have undertones of violence in the form of rape. His dark secret love and the fact that it destroys Rose’s life may indicate that she has been raped. I believe that the fact that Rose is sick could perhaps have dual meanings. She may have acquired some sort of disease from the invisible worm. It is also possible that Rose may have become pregnant. The fact that her life has somehow been destroyed is also relevant here, as childbirths were more difficult in such times, as well as the fact that giving birth would mean her having to give up her own life in a sense, in order to raise a child. It is also possible that Rose’s sickness is love sickness. She is in love with a man of whom her parents do not approve. The howling storm may be a metaphor for her family’s rage at her being with this man. There is also a hint of Rose’s affair with this man in his dark secret love. There are other possible interpretations of the poem completely different to the sexual themes I have explored already. Rose may not in fact be the name of a person. It may be taken literally, as just a rose in someone’s garden. The rose may be wilting or dying as a result of being devoured by garden insects such as this invisible worm, who may represent the insect populous. More references to the rose’s literal interpretation include the bed, perhaps indicating the flowerbed in which the rose lives. It is also possible that it’s illness and dying is a result of someone having picked the rose. The poem also uses some biblical reference. In Genesis, eve was to blame for the downfall of mankind. In The Sick Rose, this has been reversed. Man is somehow to blame for Rose’s illness, again, the invisible worm being a metaphor for masculinity. The poem is also feminist in that it expresses the dangers of men. The poem can also be interpreted having historical/political meaning. With the rose being the symbol for England, its being sick could be referring to the industrialisation of England. The invisible worm that flies in the night might be the capitalism, which brought about the industrialisation. The Rose’s bed of crimson joy could mean that before the industrialisation, all was well. But upon its arrival, the Rose’s livelihood was destroyed. An interpretation of the poem that I find interesting is that of one John Holloway. He feels that the poem is a reversal of John Bunyan’s Upon A Snail. He felt that Bunyan’s snail was a “distasteful exemplar of Christian piety.” He suggests Blake appropriates the snail for the sick rose, and rather than seeing the invisible worm as a metaphor for sexuality, he sees it as one for religion. Holloway concludes that the worm offers "a representation of how the divine spirit is conventionally and disastrously understood or rather travestied," which he feels Bunyan’s snail unintentionally does. As I had stated earlier, The Sick Rose is a highly ambiguous play and that it is difficult to surmise it’s exact meaning. Is The Sick Rose simply an innocent anecdote about a wilting rose in a flower bed, or truly a more sinister tale of sexual repression and violence? Who can be sure? *work on better conclusion. LAMENESS!!!