Psychoanalyzing Blake

Here are two very interesting guys: William Blake [1757 - 1827], English artist, mystic and poet; and Sigmund Freud [1856 - 1939], Austrian psychotherapist and "Father of Psychoanalysis."

Here's one popular approach to literary criticism, called the Psychoanalytic or Freudian Approach:"

"Psychoanalytic criticism originated in the work of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who pioneered the technique of psychoanalysis. Freud developed a language that described, a model that explained, and a theory that encompassed human psychology. His theories are directly and indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious mind.

The psychoanalytic approach to literature not only rests on the theories of Freud; it may even be said to have begun with Freud, who wrote literary criticism as well as psychoanalytic theory. Probably because of Freud’s characterization of the artist’s mind as “one urged on by instincts that are too clamorous,” psychoanalytic criticism written before 1950 tended to psychoanalyze the individual author.

Literary works were read—sometimes unconvincingly—as fantasies that allowed authors to indulge repressed wishes, to protect themselves from deep-seated anxieties, or both. After 1950, psychoanalytic critics began to emphasize the ways in which authors create works that appeal to readers’ repressed wishes and fantasies. Not only is the diction examined for sexual imagery, but the whole work is seen through Freudian concepts: struggles of the superego, the Oedipus complex, with the repressed contents of consciousness, etc. The aim is illumination of psychic conflicts, not aesthetic ranking." (Adapted from The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms by Ross Murfin and Supriya M. Ray. Copyright 1998 by Bedford Books.)

Now, here's one very intriguing poem by Blake:

The Sick Rose
by 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.


Now may I ask, what is the above poem all about? What's with the "sick" rose? The "invisible" worm that "flies in the night"? What's with the "bed," "crimson joy," and "dark secret love"?

I'm pretty sure that if Mr. Freud were alive today, he'd have a really interesting "reading' of Blake's poem. I took this poem up with my English 106 (The Teaching of Literature) class and we ended up quoting Freud.

Let's hear your thoughts on this.