The Sick Rose

William Blake

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.

Eight lines and one worm. Something invisible, flying at night in a storm, finds the rose's bed and loves it to death.

Source: William Blake, Songs of Experience (1794), from the Project Gutenberg edition of Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Text: Project Gutenberg. Public domain in the US.

Public domain in the United States.