Of all the early Romantic poets, William Blake was perhaps the most enigmatic and idiosyncratic. Composing a plethora of bewitching songs and ballads that divulged a strange and compelling comprehension of the world, Blake was mysteriously inspired by a lifelong exposure to “mystical forces”, forces which he often sought to describe in his poetry and painting.
Despite his prodigious artistic abilities, both on the page and canvas, his belief in a phantasmagorical realm looming over mortal life can bewilder (as well as delight) his admirers. This week’s poem was published in Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 1794 and is among his most lauded and quoted works.
The true symbolic significance of the vivid images he selected has been academically appraised and investigated many times. However, the actual intention behind Blake’s Sick Rose still baffles scholars and critics to this day. No settled consensus has ever been reached concerning the intended meaning of this perplexing, playful and spellbinding poem, but its popularity proves an inherent power to appeal without perspicuity. As TS Eliot asserted, “genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”
We hope you enjoy this week’s choice as much as we did.
The Sick Rose (1794)
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.