'The Sick Rose'- William Blake
Hello Friends...
Sure, we all are doing well... Be careful, we must stay fit and shouldn't fall ill getting our studies affected. We shall eat and drink healthy, exercise regularly, and won't avoid our domestic and social responsibilities. And whatever time we get for ourselves at the end of the day, we must study hard for most of the time, so that we learn to think... and learn. We simply cannot afford to stop thinking, for we are learners, and we are the chosen ones who got the scope to learn...
Let's learn to think first...
The Title
Have you noted the title? How do you prepare yourself for a text after you have gone through its title? By the way, you must be knowing that the title of a text is expected to guide us through the text by providing us some prior insight into the text.
Listening to the Poem
Would you like to check out if you got the clue from the title of this text up to your satisfaction or not? Listen carefully to the poem first, before you start reading the poem on your own, for maybe, the listening [following the tone of the reading] may help you to rethink about the title, if you feel it necessary at all:
How have you found the tone in the audio? Would you like to point out the feeling(s) you've perceived? And, would you like to stick to the same reading of the title as before?
Let's read the text minutely before we try to decide our answers:
The Sick Rose
 |
William Blake -Painting by Thomas Phillips |
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.
The First Reading
You must be feeling ready to point out that the poem is an easy one to read,- it is just about a rose infested with worm. And it is wonderfully brief, which makes you happier.
Yes. I do agree that the poem is brief; rather, it is excitingly brief. From my experience, I know that briefer a text, more is the excitement of decoding the meaning. I'm not sure [as it seems you are] if I would say such a text easy to read. Let's see...
The Characters
Which character in the poem seems to be under focus here, by the way?
The Rose?
Is it Rose? Why? Is it because the poem is about Rose, as pointed out in the very title of the poem? Or, is it because the whole of the poem has been a message for Rose? Or, would you like to simply point out that it is the only character in the poem which has been spelt with a capital 'R'? Or, is it because you find this character important enough to get personified with the humane feature of being 'sick' and not just 'diseased' as we say in case of a flowering plant?
The Worm?
Would you like to differ? Would you prefer the 'worm' instead, neglecting Rose who is already sick? Have you noted the aspects that define the worm? Here, we have an 'invisible' worm that 'flies in the night in the howling storm' with 'his dark secret love', destroying 'life'. Do you prefer this dark dominating force to be the character of prominence in the poem, now particularly when we know that there is no villain, but just anti-heroes?
The Speaker?
Well, I think both these characters are major characters, but for me, the other character in the text is more important than these two. I'm sure you haven't missed the speaker in the poem. Yes, the whole poem is a sort of message for Rose from the speaker's side.
The Dramatic Set
Now, you must have realised the dramatic setting of the poem. It seems here we have one speaker actively addressing Rose, the listener [though passive in the sense we are not informed about the Rose's response or reaction], and referring to some invisible worm [like some off-stage protagonist or character] and its activities, thus rolling the ball of 'action' forward.
The Message
If we have already listed down our characters, now it's time for studying the message. Do you think it is necessary for you to be told that you are sick when you are sick? Or is it you who feel and know it first when you fall sick?
Why do you think that here Rose requires somebody else to point out about it's sickness?
And who is this wise speaker in the poem, by the way, who seems to be so much informed about others around than they themselves are?
The Use of Archaic English
Don't we have any clue in the poem? Not much, save the facts that the speaker uses archaic [old English, like the English of the Bible] words like 'thou' [you], 'art' [are] and 'thy' [your], and seems to be wise enough [omniscient?] to make the comment. These little facts may prove to be actually much, let's see...
Do we have enough clues right now to decide our answers? If not, you must be knowing by this time, that it's time to look beyond the text.
The Original Text
But before we look beyond the text most of us now do have for the purpose of study, you must have a look at the text the painter-poet himself intended for his readers:
.png)
Do you find the original text more interesting? Do you now feel that the poet has indeed personified Rose in the poem? What makes you feel this way? Would you like to explain by pointing out facts from the painting?
Do you have anything else to say apart from the fact that here, Rose seems to be representing some female figure, or maybe, femininity [note the spelling] itself in all of its images?
The Poet And His Society
William Blake, the poet, was a painter as well who had the inclination to publish his poems this way. Why don't we study about the poet, and his space and time in particular to see if we get some further insight into the story? I would suggest you to to go through 'London' at the least, another poem by Blake, if you feel your time is too short for a detailed study of the English society contemporary to the poet [You are left on your own though to find out how the poet had published this poem originally, if you're interested]:
Advanced and interested students may browse the link below for further details:
Now, maybe you've realised how his time and society used to torment the soul of the poet. And have you noted, how in the poem 'London', Blake has listed the agony of the prostitutes [harlots] and their cries on top of all the other wearies of his society? Actually during his time, Blake's England was suffering the ill-impacts of industrial revolution, as manifested through the exploitation of the poorer section of the society in the hands of the greedy capitalist forces. Does this help you in any way to gain some insight into the poem we are studying? You are free to ask me for elaboration of this issue, if you think it necessary.
Fall of Mankind
Do you remember that you have noted earlier how the speaker uses archaic words in the poem? Does that make some sense to you now? Do you feel the speaker as some wise seer as old as the Bible itself? Do you know the biblical story about the 'fall' of mankind, anyway? You may hit the link to get the summary of the story as elaborated in Milton's 'Paradise Lost' [even just the few introductory lines will help]:
The Metaphors
The Biblical Worm
Now it's time for you to know that Satan in the guise of a snake, inducing Eve to disobey God, has also been referred to as a 'giant worm' in the Bible. And it's time again to get back to the illustration made by the poet himself.
The Worm as Painted by Blake
Have you noticed the worm, visible obviously, in the left-hand topmost corner? Do you realise any physical semblance existing between the shape of the worm illustrated, and the shape of a snake?
Freudian Interpretation?
Advanced students may also dig further deep. Have you heard of Sigmund Freud? Surely you know about his notion of phallic symbols, then? Snake, or the giant 'worm', stands as a symbol of the male genital, or phallus, as per the Freudian school.
Innocence And Experience
Do you, in any way, have the information that the poem we are discussing belongs to an anthology titled 'Songs of Innocence And Experience'. The anthology also has a subtitle- 'the two contrary states of the human soul'. It was the belief of the poet that the 'experience' human beings gain as they grow destroys unavoidably their own 'innocence' that they are born with.
Now, I feel it's time to wind up our discussion by picking up each fragment that we have raised and discussed till so far...
What do you think 'Rose' and the 'invisible worm' in the poem stand for, now that you have studied the illustration made by the poet himself, and have learned about his contemporary English society and the story of Satan [along with the Freudian interpretation of snake (or, worm) as a phallic symbol] and the fact that Blake was trying to focus upon 'the two contrary states of the human soul' in his 'Songs of Innocence And Experience'?
The Rose And the Worm
Can we interpret Rose as the simple innocent English country-life before industrial revolution and the worm as the adverse complexities of the industrial revolution that destroyed the simplistic nature of the earlier English society?
Shall we read Rose as Eve, who got corrupt in her innocent way by revengeful Satan [symbolised by the worm in the poem?], whose actions she failed to look through, or interpret?
Don't you feel that Rose may also be interpreted as someone whose physical 'right' gets violated by intruding sexual offenders, represented by the worm [remember the phallic symbols as per the Freudian school?] in the poem?
Advanced students may get indulged in the obvious debate of the gender-issue, here, and are free to incorporate me into their discourse.
Do you think that the 'Rose' and the 'worm' can also be studied in accordance with Blake's notion of 'innocence' and 'experience'?
Yes, certainly... You may very well interpret 'Rose' as our 'innocence' and the 'worm' as our 'experience' using the terms used by the poet himself.
The Speaker
And who do you think is the speaker here, now?
Is he the poet himself, alerting Rose so that it realises the advances of the 'invisible' worm?
Or do you think that the speaker may be anybody who cares about Rose? I'm almost sure that by this time, you've realised why Rose requires someone wiser to alert? Yes,- because it is too naive, or simplistic in nature.
A Simple One?
Do you still think this to be a simple poem, easy to read?
Well, it's not that difficult either, provided you know a bit of history...
Grammar
How about discussing a bit about the language of the poem now? For a variation from the present course of our discussion?
Clauses
How many clauses are there in the poem?
The question is surely an easier one. We have four clauses in the whole poem:
1. O Rose thou art sick [You must have marked this in no time]
2. The invisible worm/... Has found out thy bed/ Of crimson joy [This might have been trickier: we have the subject of the clause in the second line of the poem, and the verb and the object in the fifth and the sixth lines, allowing the subordinate adjective clause (listed as the third clause here) within in the third and fourth lines of the poem.]
3. That flies in the night/ In the howling storm [It was also an easy one, I do suppose.]
4. And his dark secret love/ Does thy life destroy [It was quite easy too, I'm sure.]
2. The invisible worm/... Has found out thy bed/ Of crimson joy [This might have been trickier: we have the subject of the clause in the second line of the poem, and the verb and the object in the fifth and the sixth lines, allowing the subordinate adjective clause (listed as the third clause here) within in the third and fourth lines of the poem.]
3. That flies in the night/ In the howling storm [It was also an easy one, I do suppose.]
4. And his dark secret love/ Does thy life destroy [It was quite easy too, I'm sure.]
Sentences
And how many sentences do you count altogether in the poem? How many sentences?
How do we identify sentences, by the way? Do you note the end-marks? Then certainly you are going to say that we have only two sentences in the poem for we have only two full stops [periods]. The other two end-marks of sentences, question mark and exclamation mark are out of question here.
Well, I don't deny your argument. But, you must be knowing that colons can be used only at the end of a sentence-like structure to let us know that some further information will follow. So, if you note the two colons, you'll find that they mark the end of two clauses [meaningful chunks/expressions consisting a finite verb with its tense marked] which are structurally similar to sentences. Modern grammarians therefore prefer to consider old-school 'clauses' and 'sentences' the same way.
The Argumentative Structure
Don't you feel that this particular arrangement of the clauses [or sentences, if you agree] has helped the poet to come up with a convincing tone and to unite the two stanzas?
Note, how the speaker begins by addressing Rose, and conveys the information about its sickness. This is the shortest sentence in the poem, and a very assertive one.
Soon, the speaker starts elaborating in a convincing tone, and refers to the invisible worm. The comma at the end of the second line indicates a pause, just the time enough for the sympathetic speaker to judge that Rose may not be able to identify the worm, and so chooses to add to the identity of the worm in the third and fourth lines. And now, the speaker requires to pause a little more, maybe to find out if Rose has been able to identify the worm [just like the poet who wants his readers to pause now and think about identity of the characters introduced].
Hence we have a stanza division which allows us more time than a comma, or the end of a line or sentence. In the final stanza, the speaker, now assured that Rose has already been able to identify the worm [and the poet, now assuming the readers have identified the characters as well] refers to those activities of the worm that account for the destruction of Rose.
But this apparently distinct stanza stays well connected with the previous stanza, communicating about the same worm which got introduced in the first stanza [you may go back to read the discussion about the second clause in the list above]. Thus, the two stanzas are grammatically unified to convey the same message.
Use of Adjectives
And certainly, once again, you get the scope here to study how adjectives defining nouns may be used skillfully to achieve wonderful brevity and tremendous subtlety:
invisible worm: Don't you feel that this agent is much more deceptive and therefore must be more cunning, and hence is more difficult or dangerous to live with than the others? Its secret desires and hidden agenda are certainly a threat to others.
howling storm: Do you feel the turbulence of the time, when you can do nothing but stay unarmed and defeated?
crimson joy: Can you smell the blood and pain of somebody being exploited for somebody else's pleasure? As in a rape?
dark secret love: How do you feel about the contradiction? It's love [we admit love can be secret], but 'dark'!!! Do you get the sinister feeling of getting trapped into the dark web of a spider ready to devour you up?
The charm, or the challenge of the poem actually lies in these adjectives. They render the poem this exceptional brevity in spite of being so much suggestive.
The Title
Shall we get back to the title once again, if you're already not too exhausted? What do you think the poem is all about? Is it about the sick rose? Or is it about the sickness of the society that spreads the infection and turns the rose sick? Remember, for the poet, it is just about 'the two contrary states of the human soul'. We are born with divine innocence which we are bound to loose as we grow and get experienced in the ways of the world.
Make Your Own Choice
Are you a bit weary as you feel there's no way to escape from the claws of experience? You have reasons to look forward. Have you forgotten the speaker in the poem? How did you find the speaker,- an experienced one, or a naive one? Certainly not a naive one, right?
Now, do you find the speaker sympathetic to others; or eager to gain pleasure, being utterly selfish, at the cost of other's pain? Don't you find the speaker way different from the worm in spirit though both are experienced?
You can't avoid being experienced as you grow. But you may certainly choose the way you want to live as an experienced one. And I'm certain you'll choose wisely...
Further Reading
Advanced students may hit the link below for further study on their own:
Comments
Post a Comment
Please feel free to share another perspective, suggest an upgrade, and ask for information, or about a doubt or confusion...