An Analysis of William Blake's 'The Sick Rose'

Using the Formalism Approach

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.

Reading the words in the poem in their denotative meaning creates in the mind of the reader a picture of a flower: the rose, perhaps in a garden. The word sick, describing the rose, creates the image of a flower that is wilting; adding the appearance of the worm, however invisible, only summons in this sad portrayal a pest (such is the worm), that turns out to be a threat to the flower ─ as the poem confirms in the second stanza.

In the second stanza, the pest, after a search, found out the flower's bed of soil, of crimson joy -- it is the joy of the flower for, aside from the sun, it is its source of life and nutrients. With the worm's dark secret love ─ assuming that this means, the pest's primary impulse to feed itself of plants (such is the flower) to survive ─ the flower, its beauty, is destroyed.

But delving deeper into symbolism and connotations, the words take on a different meaning. That is, the rose is no longer a flower but a symbol for a 'woman', a 'maiden' who is as refreshing and young as a flower. The words crimson joy in the sixth line, indeed confirm that she is young; for crimson (which is akin to red, nearly purple) entails the color of youth, and passion that is ever so strong and evident in the young. Although this 'woman' is beautiful, and the idea of her is refreshing, she is sick. The invisible worm that found her in her bed/ of crimson joy suggests an 'illness' or perhaps 'death' itself, thus destroying her life. The lines "that flies in the night/In the howling storm" (lines 3-4) give the reader a picture of the 'weather' or of the time when this worm had found her.

This may be a mild interpretation or analysis of the poem, for others may suggest a sexual violation against the 'woman'. Well, multiple interpretations cannot be avoided. Besides, a great literary work offers not one meaning, for it must contain ambiguity.

Mimetic Analysis of 'The Lady and Her Five Suitors'

Mimesis is the Greek word for 'imitation'. The Mimetic Approach to analysing literature checks how well a piece of literary work accords with the real world; or, how well is its 'imitation' of reality as we know it. Using this approach, the literary piece critiqued here (in this paper) is 'The Lady and Her Five Suitors' — a short story featured in a collection: 'Arabian Nights'.

The story centers on nameless, but not title-less, personages: the Woman, the Woman's Lover, the Kali (Chief-of-Police), the Kazi, the Wazir, the King, and the Carpenter. The reader is introduced first to the main character: the Woman. Curtains were opened to her, who was the wife of a great Traveler, when in her husband's long absence, she has taken on herself a young lover.

What the Woman has done (that is, having an intimate affair aside from her husband) reflects well the real situation of some married women who suffer the pangs of longing from long-distance relationships. The problem, however, arose when the Woman's lover was sent to prison after an altercation with another man who filed a case against him.

The desperate measures taken by the Woman to release his Lover from imprisonment are also possible in reality. That is, when the payment required of us is too much for us to pay, we may haggle over the price or turn somewhere else for better and cheaper offers for the same material and, perhaps, for the same quality. What the Woman has done, however, was out-witting her seemingly "witty" suitors who were blinded by their "love" for her. I believe, with less bias, that 'wits' is intrinsic to a woman.