The descriptions Blake gives to the “worm” (2) are suggestive of fatal disease. The word “invisible” (2) evokes descriptions of the pathogens so small that they are considered “invisible”. The worm “flies in the night” (3), for it only moves in darkness, where it can be sure of secrecy. It flies, the most efficient mode of transportation, and the one most connotative of mystery, for humans, despite their efforts, cannot truly fly without the use of engines and motors and therefore view it with perplexity. Likewise, the rate and means of infection are seen as something mysterious, unknowable, and disastrously quick.
The “storm” (4) is “howling” (4), as if in pain or despair. This implies that the worm, as it traveled through the storm, somehow injured it. The worm not only pains the rose, but it torments those in its way. This helps fully present the rose as something perhaps innocent, but cruelly oblivious, unaware that it is sick, ignorant of others. After all, it needs somebody to tell it that it is sick, as if the rose would have died slowly, believing that it was still healthy. Innocence is not always freeing or uplifting. Sometimes, it is ignorance pathetically believing it to be safe.
is there anywhere online we can find these poems?
ReplyDeleteI was looking for the glowworm one but didn't see it anywhere.
ReplyDeleteOn "The Sick Rose":
ReplyDeleteThe descriptions Blake gives to the “worm” (2) are suggestive of fatal disease. The word “invisible” (2) evokes descriptions of the pathogens so small that they are considered “invisible”. The worm “flies in the night” (3), for it only moves in darkness, where it can be sure of secrecy. It flies, the most efficient mode of transportation, and the one most connotative of mystery, for humans, despite their efforts, cannot truly fly without the use of engines and motors and therefore view it with perplexity. Likewise, the rate and means of infection are seen as something mysterious, unknowable, and disastrously quick.
The “storm” (4) is “howling” (4), as if in pain or despair. This implies that the worm, as it traveled through the storm, somehow injured it. The worm not only pains the rose, but it torments those in its way. This helps fully present the rose as something perhaps innocent, but cruelly oblivious, unaware that it is sick, ignorant of others. After all, it needs somebody to tell it that it is sick, as if the rose would have died slowly, believing that it was still healthy. Innocence is not always freeing or uplifting. Sometimes, it is ignorance pathetically believing it to be safe.
-Clara Yoon