Composition
Outer composition
The poem “The Sick Rose” by William Blake has a simple outer composition. The poem has 8 verses in total and is separated into two stanzas of the same length. A stanza composed of four lines is also called a quatrain. The verses are of a short length, from three to five words each.
The first stanza contains four verses:
O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night
In the howling storm: (ll. 1-4)
The second stanza is separated from the first through enjambment, as the poem only contains two sentences. The first line is self-contained, while lines 2-8 make up the second sentence of the poem. The second stanza also contains four verses:
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy. (ll...