Preview

Sick Rose Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
707 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sick Rose Analysis
“The Sick Rose” I) The Sick Rose written by William Blake, and published in Songs of Experience in 1794. II) The speaker addresses a rose that is sick. During a dark, stormy night, a worm that cannot be seen flies through the sky. There is a “dark secret love” about the worm that is destroying the rose’s life. III) The poem is told in the second person point of view. The speaker directly addresses rose, “O Rose”. Also, Blake uses words such as “thou” and “thy” which are variations of “you” and “your”. The speaker is most likely male because of the way he addresses Rose directly, “O Rose, thou art sick”. There are no specific details about the narrator that describe his race, age, or ethnicity. IV) The tone of The Sick Rose by William Blake is ominous and gruesome. The narrator alerts Rose of her ominous fate at the very start by saying, “thou art sick”. Blake uses diction such as “destroy”, “howling”, and “dark” to cause the mood to be mysterious. The narrator uses the color “crimson” as the adjective for “joy” Crimson can be thought of as the color of blood and even further, death. The “love” mentioned in the poem is not a happy love, but a “dark secret” love. V) William Blake incorporates various symbols in his poem, The Sick Rose. First, the “invisible worm” in line two can be taken as a phallic symbol. “Sick” (line 1) can be interpreted as death, or hopelessness. Lines two and three can be symbolized as rape, or undesired love as the “invisible worm” “flies in the night”. “Of crimson joy” is a symbol of blood or violence. The “dark secret love” in line seven can be taken as an affair or unfaithful love used by Rose, or even her lover. The “howling storm” can be taken literally as a stormy night or figuratively as a night where regretful actions, such as unfaithful love had taken place. Nature is symbolized throughout the poem through “Rose”, “storm”, and “worm”. VI) The poem is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Briar Rose Analysis

    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Briar Rose '' War and Persecution Theme and definition. The theme war and persecution is based on the constant hostility, ill treatment and harsh condition endured by the residence of Chelmno. WWII Poland was a war between many nations causing outright conflict and mass murder of many innocent souls. *Explanation of the theme and its *significance. The tales of the past was told by Josef by allowed Becca and the responder to experience the Poland of the past and what it was once like. There is a constant reference to the torture and murder that different groups had experienced; this provided a clear image of cruelty and discrimination in the Nazi camp (Chapter 22 '' Pg. 141). The listing of different punishments overwhelms the responder…

    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    5. What 2 possible symbols does the rose have for the reader? A sweet moral blossom or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Love and Gavin Tyler Poem

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the poem; "The Wisdom of Shelley" by George Elliot Clarke there is much imagery and symbolism used throughout the entire work. The author very rapidly sets the tone of the poem, as well as gives the reader hints of past major events in “Shelley’s” life. Immediately the mood of negativity is created. Everything that is presented to her is received by her in a different light. There is strong imagery based on the contrast. The author draws a picture in the reader’s mind, with his use of imagery in his poem. An example of an image drawn mentally by the use of descriptive words in the poem would be; “Like a late blizzard, You bust in our door, talkin' April and snow and rain,” This allows the reader to picture in their mind the very same image the author is imagining and writing about. By compairing the man to a “late blizzard” and saying that he busted in the door, leads to the fact that she, Shelley, does not welcome him or his love. Also, there are several symbols found in this poem. A few of these would be; “poems”, and “Roses got thorns”. Poems represent love and feelings, so when the man enters the house “litterin' the table with poems” he comes in expressing his emotions to her, yet with the use of the word “litterin’” she makes it sound like it’s a bad and fowl action he is committing. Finally, roses and thorns are a symbol which represents, the positive and negative of love. The rose is all about love, happiness and beauty. Whereas the thorns brings things back to reality, with the pain, and downside of love and a relationship. Clarke does an excellent job of incorporating and including much imagery and symbols in his…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The combination of words, create tone/mood in all stories; through those tones, a realization of certain aspects of life or an alternation of those views are intensified. Three short stories, "A Rose for Emily," "The Destructors," and the "Interpreter of Maladies," shine brightly in exemplifying how words used in a specifics order or meaning, create tone to alter one's opinions.…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Also, by contrasting ‘scream of the rabbit’ and ‘scream of the owl’, she emphasizes an evil, brutal image of owls. Later, she asks ‘Are the roses not also-even as the owl is- excessive?’ to show the two-sidedness of roses as well as owls. Although roses look lovely and beautiful in the look, they allure people by their enrapturing appearance. Through juxtaposing highly contrasting images, the readers are able to grasp how nature’s characteristic cannot be evaluated by its superficial looks: appearance can be deceiving, even roses have thorns inside.…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In her poem “One Perfect Rose,” Dorothy Parker misleads the reader throughout the first and second stanzas into believing this poem is a romantic tribute to a tender moment from her past through her word choice and style of writing. However, the tone of the entire poem dramatically changes upon reading the third and final stanza when Parker allows the reader to understand her true intention of the poem, which is a cynical and perhaps bewildered view of the memory. And, with this shift in the tone in the third stanza, there is a shift in the meaning of the entire poem, leading the reader to believe that the first two stanzas were not, in fact, sweet but instead a sarcastic and bitter account of this past moment. In the first stanza, Dorothy Parker uses specific words to create a double meaning. She uses words like “tenderly,” “pure,” and “perfect” to describe both the rose and it’s sender. The words directly influence the reader’s initial reaction to the poem, as does the way in which she writes the poem. The stanza has four lines with every other line rhyming (ABAB format). It is short and sweet with a melodic quality in it’s reading. This musical quality definitely helps to lull the reader into the belief that the poem’s intention is to come across as a romantic recollection. However, in reading the poem through a second time, equipped with the knowledge of it’s true bitter notions, the reader sees what is purposely hidden but directly affects the overall tone. Parker mentions first and foremost the fact that this gentleman sent her “a single flow’r” and ends the stanza with the phrase “one perfect rose.” There is a repetition here that at first the reader passes off as her noting the delicacy of the solitary flower. Upon reading the last stanza, it is realized that she is actually pointing out the fact that the only thing she received was one flower-that’s it. And, although there is a melodic quality to the rhythm to this poem, this rhythm accentuates the…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Watkins, Floyd C." The Structure of A Rose for Emily". Modern Language Notes. Web. 3 Oct. 2011…

    • 927 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beneath The Roses Analysis

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cindy Sherman and Yasumasa Morimura are two great photographers whom have challenged the social subjectivity of sexual orientation through their provocative photos of the women’s body and representing it in how they imagined it should be represented. Both photographers come from different background and have different approach to their work, but it is evident that they both challenge the themes concerned with gender and the historical representation of women’s bodies. In the case of Tasumasa Morimura, it is interesting to observe how he challenges this role, considering that he is a male, but nonetheless his work does indeed challenge the historical context of the representation of the women body.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Line six used the theme of darkness to convey his deep love and pull toward the poem and how is interest set her apart from…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Faulkner could be considered one of the greatest American writers for Southern literature. He is an eccentric southern writer who is mostly known for writing short stories that include his eerie style and dark descriptions. William Faulkner is the son of Murray Cuthbert Falkner and Maud Butler. Faulkner was born in Mississippi where most of his short stories take place. Faulkner wanted to join the U.S Army during World War I, but was denied because of his height, he later enlisted in the British Royal Flying Corps (Fulton 26). In 1919, Faulkner enrolled into the University of Mississippi where he wrote the student newspaper (Witkoski 1). After being published and selling 1,000 copies, Faulkner moved to New…

    • 1550 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Today’s presentation will focus on “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” by William Shakespeare and “Sonnet 147” also by William Shakespeare. These poems, which both deal with the concept of beauty and love are interesting because they contradict each other even though they were written by the same poet and have the same themes. William Shakespeare lived from 1564 to 1616, an era known as the renaissance period. This obviously influenced Shakespeare’s writing as he wrote about love and beauty which are both common themes of this time.…

    • 1524 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sonnet130 Analysis

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages

    *Once again, if he had been in earnest, this would have been “her cheeks are like roses”= simile.…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Figure of Speech

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Simile : A comparison between two distinctly different things, objects or events. It consists in placing two different things side by side and comparing them with regard to some quality common to them. First the two objects must be different in kind. Secondly, the point of resemblance between the two different object or event must be clearly brought out. Such words are used for comparison : ‘like’ or ‘as’. A simple example of Robert Burns,…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Sick Rose

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Depressed * Scary * Mysterious Literary Features * Pesonification * Allegory * Imagery * Symbol * Metaphor * Irony and paradox * Dark secret love * Sick rose * Crimson joy…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    asma

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages

    ......."Go, Lovely Rose" is lyric poem with four quatrains (four-line stanzas) in which the speaker addresses a rose he is sending to a young lady. It was first published in 1645 in Poems, a collection of Waller's works. It is among the most famous and most admired short poems in English literature.…

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays