The Sick Rose

I think this a very simple, straightforward poem to interpret, but it can be either literal or symbolic. The poem is structured with two quatrain stanzas and a rhyme scheme of ABCB DEFE. I think this was intended to keep the poem organized, but retain 2 separate ideas within the poem. The first stanza talks about how the rose is sick and the perpetrator that caused its sickness and then the second stanza is more admirable of the dying rose. This poem, though, seems to be more than literal. With a little help from Google, I figured out that the rose is a symbol for love, and well a worm is symbolic of...you know. I think this poem is sort of showing how love is sick and distorted by such actions done unto it by sexual pleasures that the worm represents in this poem. Specifically when the poet puts in the line Has found out thy bed, there is a play on words and it can play between both themes in the poem-- the rose and the lover's bed. This poem is really cool when you move past the initial picture!