The Blossom And The Sick Rose
The sick rose and the Blossom. William Blake
In Songs of Innocence and Experience Blake compares and contrasts the mechanised, urban world with the natural world. At the heart of this is the effects that civilised man measured up against man in a state of nature. Innocence relates not just to childhood in the individual but what has been lost or deformed in mankind by the civilising forces of society. In the sick rose and the blossom the theme is love, both of the heart and the body. In the blossom there are two stanzas whch present two different birds. Both birds appear under leaves so green and happy blossom, and both birds are 'near my bosom' The difference lies in the sparrow's success in reaching the cradle. This has been suggested is further explained by the illustration which accompanies the poem, the green, winged figure represents the expectant mother. The whole of the illustration is said to represent the moment of creation of new life. The robin is sometimes seen, with his redbreast, as a symbol of a broken heart. This would explain why he is sobbing, sobbing and has not reached the goal of procreation.
The sick rose is also has the theme of love, but of love corrupted by social ritual
Love is always presented as pure and natural by poets and novelists.
The Visionary Company: Reading of English Romantic History
Harold Bloom
The bed has to be 'found out' because it is concealed, and it is already a bed of' crimson joy' before the worm comes to it. The elements of deliberate concealment and of sexual self-gratification make it clear that the poem attacks the myth of female flight and male pursuit, with its sinister pattern of sexual refusal and consequent destructiveness
Bloom is saying the poem criticises the usual myth of love as being about a women running away with a male pursuing her, this is a common male/female stereotype of sexual/romantic behaviour, Bloom says that Blake is criticisng this image as deceitful, the woman runs away, hoping to be
In Songs of Innocence and Experience Blake compares and contrasts the mechanised, urban world with the natural world. At the heart of this is the effects that civilised man measured up against man in a state of nature. Innocence relates not just to childhood in the individual but what has been lost or deformed in mankind by the civilising forces of society. In the sick rose and the blossom the theme is love, both of the heart and the body. In the blossom there are two stanzas whch present two different birds. Both birds appear under leaves so green and happy blossom, and both birds are 'near my bosom' The difference lies in the sparrow's success in reaching the cradle. This has been suggested is further explained by the illustration which accompanies the poem, the green, winged figure represents the expectant mother. The whole of the illustration is said to represent the moment of creation of new life. The robin is sometimes seen, with his redbreast, as a symbol of a broken heart. This would explain why he is sobbing, sobbing and has not reached the goal of procreation.
The sick rose is also has the theme of love, but of love corrupted by social ritual
Love is always presented as pure and natural by poets and novelists.
The Visionary Company: Reading of English Romantic History
Harold Bloom
The bed has to be 'found out' because it is concealed, and it is already a bed of' crimson joy' before the worm comes to it. The elements of deliberate concealment and of sexual self-gratification make it clear that the poem attacks the myth of female flight and male pursuit, with its sinister pattern of sexual refusal and consequent destructiveness
Bloom is saying the poem criticises the usual myth of love as being about a women running away with a male pursuing her, this is a common male/female stereotype of sexual/romantic behaviour, Bloom says that Blake is criticisng this image as deceitful, the woman runs away, hoping to be