Symbol & Allegory The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yello

n “Bed” can refer to woman’s bed as well as to a flower bed.
n “Crimson joy” suggests the pleasure of passionate lovemaking, as well as the
brilliant beauty of a red flower.
n The “dark secret of love” of the “invisible worm” is more strongly suggestive
of a concealed or illicit love affair than of the feeding of a cankerworm on a
plant, though it fits that too.
n For all these reasons, the rose almost immediately suggests a woman and the
worm her secret lover – and the poem suggests the corruption of innocent
but physical love by concealment and deceit.
n The worm is a common symbol or metonymy for death, and fans of Jon
Milton (like Blake) would recall the “undying worm” of Paradise Lost,
Milton’s metaphor for the snake that tempted Eve.
n Are other interpretations possible?
n Yes.
n “The Sick Rose” has been interpreted as referring to the destruction of love
by jealousy, deceit, or the possessive instinct; of innocence by experience; of
imagination and joy by analytic reason; of life by death.
n We cannot say for sure what the poet had in mind, nor do we need to.
n A symbol defines an area of meaning, and any interpretation that falls within
that area is permissible.
n In Blake’s poem, the rose stands for something beautiful, or desirable, or
good.
n The worm stands for some corrupting agent.
n Within these limits, the meaning is largely “open.”
n For instance, the poem may remind some of a gifted friend whose promise
and potential have been destroyed by drug addiction.
n Digging
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down