Songs of Innocence and Experience “The Sick Rose” 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. The speaker, addressing
a rose, informs it that it is sick. An “invisible” worm has
stolen into its bed in a “howling storm” and under the cover of
night. The “dark secret love” of this worm is destroying the
rose’s life. The two quatrains of this poem rhyme ABCB. The
ominous rhythm of these short, two-beat lines contributes to the
poem’s sense of foreboding or dread and complements the
unflinching directness with which the speaker tells the rose she
is dying. While the rose exists as a beautiful natural object
that has become infected by a worm, it also exists as a literary
rose, the conventional symbol of love. The image of the worm
resonates with the Biblical serpent and also suggests a phallus.
Worms are quintessentially earthbound, and symbolize death and
decay. The “bed” into which t