Blake's "The Sick Rose"

WilliamBlake’s poem, “The Sick Rose”is a rather disturbing piece. William Blake has poems from two anthologies; Songs of Innocence and Songs of experience. “The sick Rose” must be in the latter anthology because it embodies the idea of corruption as the “worm” “destroy(s)” the “rose.” The poem as a whole is ambiguous. Even the title connotes an ambiguous object; the rose. After all, a rose is beautiful, sweet smelling, and a symbol of romance yet, the “experienced” reader knows that a rose also has thorns. The “worm” that corrupt(s)” the rose is a phallic symbol, which is conveyed through its “fly(ing) in the night” to the rose’s “bed.” This poem is far from one of Blake’s Songs of Innocence pieces because the worm furtively goes to the rose’s “bed” where the act of “crimson joy” is committed. Blake emphasizes that the worm is robbing the innocence from the rose, which is the opposite of pure intentions. If the worm “flies at night” and is “invisible” is corruption through “experience” inevitable? I do not think one can possibly avoid an “invisible threat.”