Audio recording (download wav.file)

  (courtesy Rothe Technologies, Inc.)

William Blake (1757-1827):

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.

Edwin J Ellis, ed., The Poetical Works of William Blake,

Vol. I. (London: Chatto & Windus, 1906) 83-84.