Lyric Poem · Love
The Sick Rose
by William Blake · 1794
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.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“The Sick Rose” by William Blake — quilloak.com/poems/the-sick-rose
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Sick Rose
- Poet
- William Blake
- Published
- 1794
- Length
- 8 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Love, Sad, Short
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 8 lines · 2 quatrains
- Line length
- Mostly 5-syllable lines.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- William Blake1757–1827
- Source record
- PoetryDBThe Sick Rose by william-blake, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1794
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 e860480f05144690…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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