The Forests of the Night the war as it really was, as James Kirkup observed, an "acid portrait of those who played at being members of the [French] Resistance". The novel's theme and title come from the opening lines to William Blake's poem "The Tyger": "Tiger, tiger, burning bright - in the forests of the night." "The Forests of the Night" was translated in 1951 into English by Nora Wydenbruck; it has not been re-printed since. Francis is the son of the Comte de Balansun, whose family resides in the French town of Saint-Clar, near the Pyrenees. Francis, in the beginning of the novel, skips
The Sick Rose as well as any colouring not performed by Blake himself. The text has been republished in typeset many times, with slight variations, and is usually included in collections of the author's work. As with many of Blake's 'songs', such as "The Tyger", the verse is contained in numerous anthologies of English poetry. A transcription of the original manuscript is: <poem> 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. </poem> Nathan Cervo describes the poem