The Act of Sex: Is It Worth the Consequences? in William Blake's Poem, The Sick Rose

The color red symbolics all of the colors and how each can have numerous emotions coming

“The Chimney Sweeper” (128): This version of the Chimney Sweeper is very upfront and saddening. The version that is presented in the songs of innocence is much more of a calm town and is not as straightforward, while this version is very short and to the point. In this version its very deep as the narrator basically just calls out the parents/church for doing these horrible things to the children. I really love all three stanzas of this poem because they all have a really deep meaning and Blake transitions through them very well. Reading this poem over and over I don’t know what to make of it other than it is an absolute horrible situation. I think it can be tied in to

The rose bushes and the red blossoms symbolize the strength the rose bush needed to survive in its elements to thus provide happiness in others. That one lone beauty, growing in such a dark and gloomy place, provides a ray of hope for those living in despair and loneliness inside the prison gates. The elements the rose bush is exposed to, act as a metaphor for Hester and her hardships which she slowly learns to adapt to.

As a forerunner to the free-love movement, late eighteenth century poet, engraver, and artist, William Blake (1757-1827), has clear sexual overtones in many of his poems, and he layers his work with sexual double entendres and symbolism. Within the discussion of sexuality in his work Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake seems to take a complicated view of women. His speakers use constructs of contraries, specifically innocence/ experience and male/female. Of the latter sex, he experiments with the passive (dependent, docile, virtuous) and active (independent, evil, a threat to the masculine) female subjects. Blake’s use of personification specifically of nature and botany suggest the use of nature to discuss human society. In Songs

Essentially, the rose is a inner reflection of the old man, alike to the portrait of Dorian Grey, in the novel, 'The Picture of Dorian Grey', by Oscar wilde. While Dorian remain youthful and beautiful, his portrait is hideous like his corrupt morals. And in 'Frangrance of Roses', while the old man's physical appearance seems pitiable, his corrupt morals and past is revealed in the dark, omnious colouring of the rose.

The Songs of Innocence poems first appeared in Blake’s 1784 novel, An Island in the Moon. In 1788, Blake began to compile in earnest, the collection of Songs of Innocence. And by 1789, this original volume of plates was complete. These poems are the products of the human mind in a state of innocence, imagination, and joy; natural euphoric feelings uninhibited or tainted by the outside world. Following the completion of the Songs of Innocence plates, Blake wrote The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and it is through this dilemma of good and evil and the suffering that he witnesses on the streets of London, that he begins composing Songs of Experience. This second volume serves as a response to Songs of

Additionally, Rosa does love Liesel despite her Watschens and insults and gives her sympathy in certain moments. When Liesel loses Ilsa Hermann as a customer and says it was her fault, Rosa replies, “It’s not your fault. I know you wouldn’t say those things” (Zusak 264). Rosa does not just blindly abuse Liesel without caring about her; Rosa knows Liesel enough to know that she is not somebody who would purposely insult Ilsa. If Rosa did not care about Liesel, then she would not have known that. In comparison, roses symbolize love in many traditions, such as American, Chinese, and Greek traditions. Though red roses are most commonly associated with romantic love, other colored roses, such as yellow and white, can be used to symbolize the motherly love Rosa shows. Although Rosa seems to be just a brutal person, she exhibits compassion to the people she cares about—like Max and Liesel.

One of the most prominently negative experiences with the color is when the characters attended a carnival and see dying, rotting red roses leading up the gates. While walking characters could smell the “stench of rotten roses” (Morrison 56). Analyzing deeper, readers can realize that the red roses are more than just what they seem to be but rather a metaphor for the character’s mortality and sufferings of the past.

Even though the rose is distinctly only in the title, it emerges as allegorical and symbolic throughout the story. Getty states, “The "Rose" of the title extends far beyond any one flower or literary allusion in its implications for the story's structure. The "Rose" represents secrecy: the confidential relationship between the author and his character, with all of the privileged information withheld” (Getty 230). The view of the warmth of love and fondness is to be thought when

In the short story, “A Red Dress 1946” by Alice Munro, Color imagery is used for signifying a girls point of view of her world and her own self by using the color red which represents nonconformity. The narrator has only a slight interest in being red, but she really wants to be blue, just like everyone else. Munro writes, “When I was asked a question in class, any simple little question at all…that I had blood on my skirt”.(2) The narrator is just so nervous about being red she is thinking of bad things that can happen with the color red. She is thinking of all the bad times the color red could do a girl badly, just like a girls period could leak at any moment. In “A Red Dress 1946”, a short story by Alice Munro, she uses Color Imagery to show the significance of the narrator’s view of the color red and all the “Evil” about it.

In "London", William Blake brings to light a city overrun by poverty and hardship. Blake discards the common, glorifying view of London and replaces it with his idea of truth. London is nothing more but a city strapped by harsh economic times where Royalty and other venues of power have allowed morality and goodness to deteriorate so that suffering and poverty are all that exist. It is with the use of three distinct metaphors; "mind-forg'd manacles", "blackning Church", and "Marriage hearse", that Blake conveys the idea of a city that suffers from physical and psychological imprisonment, social oppression, and an unraveling moral society.

Prompted by its ambiguity, when William Faulkner was asked to explain the symbolic nature of the rose, he responded by stating that it was “Just a ‘Rose for Emily’ – That’s all” (Towner & Carothers, p. 67). This implies that the rose is merely a gesture of kindness to a pitiable character and nothing more. For those not comfortable with Faulkner’s response, perhaps the only other clue lies in the final page where a secret room reveals “faded rose colored” curtains and “rose shaded lights” (Faulkner, p.674). It may be that Faulkner used the rose to tie the beginning of the story with its end. While the rose in the title may or may not be symbolic, what it actually represents appears to be left open to interpretation.

William Blake focused on biblical images in the majority of his poetry and prose. Much of his well-known work comes from the two compilations Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. The poems in these compilations reflect Blake's metamorphosis in thought as he grew from innocent to experienced. An example of this metamorphosis is the two poems The Divine Image and A Divine Image. The former preceded the latter by one year.

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are collections of poems that utilize the imagery, instruction, and lives of children to make a larger social commentary. The use of child-centered themes in the two books allowed Blake to make a crucial commentary on his political and moral surroundings with deceptively simplistic and readable poetry. Utilizing these themes Blake criticized the church, attacking the hypocritical clergy and pointing out the ironies and cruelties found within the doctrines of organized religion. He wrote about the horrific working conditions of children as a means to magnify the inequality between the poor working class and

William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The life of a hosier however was not the right path for Blake as he exhibited early on a skill for reading and drawing. Blake’s skill for reading can be seen in his understanding for and use of works such as the Bible and Greek classic literature.