The Sick Rose

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1794

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Related Poems

Paradise Lost by John Milton (1674)

The themes surrounding corruption, loss of innocence, and the decay of the natural world that Blake explores in “The Sick Rose” have their roots at least as far back as the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. John Milton’s retelling of the fall of mankind from the Garden of Eden, titled Paradise Lost, is one of the cornerstones of Blake’s theology. Blake viewed Milton’s Paradise Lost as a revelation of some of the deeper religious mysteries and saw himself as continuing Milton’s work. In particular, Milton’s depiction of Satan as a staunch individualist fighting oppression informed Blake’s ideas about evil and the role of heaven and hell.

“The Blossom“ by William Blake (1789)

From the Songs of Innocence section of Songs of Innocence and of Experience, “The Blossom” demonstrates the simple and song-like qualities of the poems intended to juxtapose those from Songs of Experience. Blake’s use of repetition, sometimes of whole lines as with “Pretty, Pretty Robin” (Lines 7, 11), gives the Songs of Innocence a juvenile simplicity that resists deep reading. While this resistance is not perfect, comparing “The Blossom” with “The Sick Rose” gives a good sense of how different sections of Blake’s collection deal with similar subjects.

“The Garden of Love“ by William Blake (1794)

“The Garden of Love” is another poem from Songs of Experience. Compared to “The Sick Rose,” this poem expands further on Blake’s ideas of civilization as a corruptive force. In this poem, the speaker compares the relative value of “A Chapel” and a natural space where he “used to play on the green” (Lines 3, 4). The Chapel is depicted as a place of societal control, telling people what they “shalt not” do and “binding with briars [the speaker’s] joys & desires (Lines 6, 12). This idea of civilization and organized religion restraining individual will is a further development of the themes seen in “The Sick Rose.”

“The Sensitive Plant“ by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1820)

Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of the central poets of the British Romantic movement. Writing a bit later than William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Shelley’s works showcase British Romanticism in its full bloom. This poem showcases many of the resonances that remained between Blake and the later Romantics. Both poems engage with ideas of corruption and death through the vehicle of an aesthetically pleasing plant. Shelley also compares the flower to an “infant” and presents it in an “undefiled Paradise” (Lines 64, 63).

“The Lover Tells Of The Rose In His Heart“ by W. B. Yeats (1899)

This poem by W. B. Yeats, an Irish modernist poet, uses the image of the Rose in a more conventional way than Blake’s “The Sick Rose.” In the Yeats poem, the rose works as a conventional symbol for the speaker’s love. Though in Yeats, that love is complicated by societal forces such as “roadway[s]” and “the creak of a lumbering cart” that sympathize with Blake’s concerns about the natural and the civilized, Yeats’s rose is unaffected.

Further Literary Resources

The Sick Rose Original Engraving by William Blake (1794)

Modern poetry is often a visual medium, and few poets understood the visual importance of words as well as Blake. Most of Blake’s poetry was engraved onto copper plates before being printed and illuminated. Part of the reason for Blake’s printing method was undoubtedly practical—Blake was a working engraver and could print the works himself. Engraving the works also allowed Blake to accompany his poetry with images to aid, direct, or even complicate possible interpretations. Particularly in collections such as Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake’s images are an essential element of the work as a whole.

Preface to Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth (1800)

William Wordsworth is perhaps the preeminent figure of British Romanticism. Though Blake was not a fan of Wordsworth’s poetry, Blake’s emphasis on innocence, corruption, and nature shares many sympathies with the works of Wordsworth and later Romantics. This preface to Lyrical Ballads is often read as a foundational text of the Romantic movement. In it, Wordsworth lays out the ideas and principles central to the nascent genre of poetry and art that Blake is most often associated with.

“William Blake: The greatest visionary in 200 years“ by Kelly Grovier (2019)

Blake’s influence extends beyond the world of poetry. In this article, Kelly Grovier presents and investigates some of the images essential to Blake’s larger body of work. Grovier details many of the tendencies and symbols that appear in Blake’s work and makes a strong case for Blake as a visual artist outside of his poetry. Reference to the intense imagery of Blake’s Newton or Capaneus the Blasphemer provides context for the relative restraint of Blake’s “The Sick Rose,” both in terms of its poetry and its accompanying images.

“An Introduction to British Romanticism“ by The Editors of Poetry Foundation (2021)

British Romanticism as a genre has soft boundaries. Many poets that influenced the literary and philosophical movement—particularly those like Blake who are difficult to otherwise categorize—are often lumped into the movement as a whole. This comprehensive introduction to the Romantic movement explores many of the ideas, philosophies, and political events that inspired the artists and thinkers associated with it.

Listen to Poem

Martin Harris reads "The Sick Rose" by William Blake

This reading of Blake’s poem, provided by Martin Harris, is precise and deliberate. Harris’s careful pronunciation is aided by his British accent, which allows Blake’s intended sympathies between words to come through unaffected.