Extremely detailed A* essay plan page/summary for Blake's 'The Sick Rose'
Contains perceptive and nuanced assertions of high level context, language analysis, arguments and themes.
Undergraduate level analysis for A-Level English Literature Unit 3: Poetry, The Romantic Poets
Topic: The Sick Rose – William Blake
- Troubles general Romantic view that nature is redemptive and rejuvenative
- Presents nature as sinister and a lingering decay
Themes/Context Literary/Dramatic Devices Techniques
of whole
poem
The (percieved) ‘O Rose’ – apostrophic paralleling ode, ironically used for very short poem Constant
‘art’ – unequivocal verb – emphasises by terminal caesura at end of line paradox of a
Sublime
‘sick/ worm/ night/ storm’ – rhyme barely echoes vowels, failing rhymes consuming love
Contamination
‘invisible worm/ night’ – implies a transgression (worms give roses canker), spread of disease metaphor for imperceptible contaminating object
Masc/Fem
‘howling storm’ – onomataepic gothic elements
‘bed’ – can be garden bed but also something dangerously erotic, menacing contamination forced onto something pure
‘crimson’ – outward embodiment of desire, also a dark undertone, can be seen as blushing but also blood and death
‘his dark secret love’ – masculine violation – clandestine
‘joy/ destroy.’ – disturbing rhyme, happiness gives way to death. Also terminal punctuation, last word resonates and is unsettling
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