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 sick rose = earthly love.  Earthly love seems beautiful, like a rose.  But roses can become diseased (sick), and 
the same is true of earthly love.  We don't know exactly what Blake means by the "invisible worm" - but it seems to 
represent the process by which the rose becomes diseased (or by which earthly love becomes sick).  The "howling storm" 
is generally taken to mean the material world, the world of experience if you like.  This kind of world brings unhappiness,
and destroys joy ("Has found out they bed / Of crimson joy").  The love of earthly things (like material things, and like
earthly beauty) leads to destruction through the attack of the "invisible worm."  Blake may be suggesting that the 
love of earthly things simply leads to destruction.  The love of God, on the other hand, leads to happiness and 
permanence.



Ah! Sun-flower

Ah, Sun-Flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime,
Where the traveller's journey is done;
								
Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.


The sun-flower = life.  The sun-flower is supposed to face the sun all the time, and to follow the sun as it moves across
the sky, always turning its flower towards it.   This explains line 3: "Seeking after that sweet golden clime, / Where the
traveller's journey is done" - in other words, facing that part of the sky where the sun (the traveller) goes down.  In other
words, the sun-flower looks towards heaven.  The second stanza describes the unhappiness of the world, and how it could 
benefit from being like the sunflower.  We are told of a young person (a Youth) who died because he/she could not find
happiness ("desire"); we are also told of a young woman "Virgin") who has also died.  If they too looked to the sun
(ie to God in his heavenly world), they too would find the kind of happiness that the sun-flower has found.



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