Now the Swan it floated on the English river
Ah the Rose of High Romance it opened wide
A sun tanned woman yearned me through the summer
And the judges watched us from the other side
I told my mother "Mother I must leave you
Preserve my room but do not shed a tear
Should rumour of a shabby ending reach you
It was half my fault and half the atmosphere"
But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet fever
And the Swan I tempted with a sense of shame
She said at last I was her finest lover
And if she withered I would be to blame
William Blake’s poem “The Sick Rose” uses a similar imagery: 
 
 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. 
 
 Scarlet fever here obviously is a metaphor for a venereal disease. Blake’s poem, too, can be interpreted) as a veiled depiction of the threat of venereal diseases.
The Traitor