The Sick Rose

William Blake is one of the earliest and most influential poets and visual artists commonly associated with the British Romantic movement. Though Blake, born in 1757, is of an earlier generation than many of the British Romantics, his emphasis on nature, the body, and the power of human creativity places him firmly as one of the movement’s progenitors. Blake, however, is idiosyncratic in both his poetry and his visual art, and resists tidy classification.

An engraver by trade, Blake self-published most of his works as illuminated manuscripts that weave visual imagery and poetic imagery together including 1794’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Blake’s unique artistic style, coupled with his eccentric views of Christian theology, give his works a rich and individual depth. Blake’s later works are dense with idiosyncratic meanings and religious visions that can make them appear wholly disconnected from the sing-song works of Songs of Innocence and of Experience where “The Sick Rose” first appeared. Nevertheless, “The Sick Rose” is an exemplar of how Blake’s concerns about religion, corruption, and nature tend to permeate his works.

Content warning: In analyzing “The Sick Rose,” this study guide expands on metaphors of sex and potential sexual violence.