like a dark dusty rose

Review:
There are many poems that were assigned to us, but I chose “Sea Rose” by H.D., which I chose for my second essay that we have assigned because this poem is my favorite among the others. I love debating about women stereotypes, and women’s perfections and imperfections, which the poem is focused on. My essay is mainly on those themes so creating a short imitation of “Sea Rose” will be a good idea since I already analyzed a lot of this poem. For my imitation of the poem, I combined the two themes of women’s perfections and imperfections that shape stereotypical society. 

The original poem has lots of imagery which I also included in my imitation of the poem. I tried to follow the similar structure of the original poem. The original starts off with listing the characteristics of the weak and fragile rose, which I tried to start off as well. I used a lot of imagery to give you a picture of the rose. I did give the rose a pronoun because the poem is about how women are seen in society based off the stereotypes. The “dark rusty rose” is to show that the rose is decaying and dying making her weak and “weightless like a feather.” For line 2, I said that she is dancing very weakly which I tried to connect with lines 5 through 8 to show how she has no control over her body because of how weak she is. The wind in the original poem represents the society and how people in society control women in following their expectations. I made this point clear in the second stanza saying how the wind (society) hits the rose (women) and controlling her movements to paths that societies want the women to follow. In the last stanza, I tried to connect its back to the last stanza in the original. In the original poem, H.D. compares the spice-rose which are considered beautiful and perfect to the rotting rose which is seen as imperfect. For my imitation for that part, I tried to make it seem as if the weak rose saw the perfect spice-rose as perfection but couldn’t relate to that cause of society sees her as imperfect for having flaws and not meeting their exceptions. I also tried to make it seem as the flawed rose is admiring the perfect rose to point out how many women in the world want to be perfect for society, but because of their flaws that are seen as different.

For my imitation on “Sea Rose,” I used a few poetic elements H.D. also used for the poem. H.D. used a lot of imagery, which I also incorporated for my imitation. In the second stanza of my imitation, I wanted to mainly use imagery to show how the wind is controlling the roses movements and guiding it to certain directions to compare it in the real world on how society is controlling women and how they should be. I characterized the flawed rose as H.D. did and using simile to compare woman to the “dark dusty rose,” and then compared the weight of the rose to a feather to show its weakness. H.D. didn’t have much of a rhythm in “Sea Rose,” so I didn’t really focus on having a rhyming scheme. My focus was on the imagery, comparison between women and roses, and women stereotypes.

—

Gurranvir Kaur

Challenging the Rose

H.D.’s poem, titled “Sea Rose”, is most effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose compared to Adrianna Puente’s poem, “The Rose and the Poppy”. In the first stanza, the speaker describes a singular rose through a negative tone. The tone has been set by a variety of negative diction used throughout the stanza. Line one begins, “Rose, harsh rose,” (H.D.). This is the speaker addressing the rose, but they immediately call it unappealing. They then continue by calling it “marred”, “stint”, “meagre”, and “thin”. All of these words create a negative image of the first rose being described in the poem. Already, this challenges the traditional notions of romance because not a single good thing is mentioned about the rose. It is not praised for its color or lovely smell. Instead, it is being called “sparse” and “marred”.

In Adrianna Puente’s poem, the first stanza describes exactly what a rose is normally symbolic of. The speaker is a personified poppy that wishes it could be as desired as the “ruby red” rose. It knows that it is not, “a symbol of romance / of new moments to be made, / of old memories to be cherished,” (Puente lines 6-8). These are all things roses are known to be symbolic of. Compared to H.D.’s poem, Puente’s speaker seems envious of the “beautiful rouge” rose that is always picked and loved for what it symbolizes.

By comparing H.D. and Adrianna Puente’s poems about roses, we see that one tries to challenge the romantic symbol of the rose, and the other challenges why that symbol can’t be given to another flower. Puente’s poem accepts and acknowledges the traditional symbolism, so she does a less effective job than H.D. to challenge the symbol.

By Tierney Bowden

In Bloom

Between H.D.’s “Sea Rose” and Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy,” the former more effectively challenges the traditional symbol of the rose. Traditionally, the symbol of the rose is depicted as a perfect, crisp red rose, symbolizing a man’s love for a woman, generally that of a woman he wishes to have. It serves as a symbol of beauty and also as a stark reminder of patriarchy; both poets do well in showing how their alternate symbols represent a better form of love, with “Sea Rose” offering an imperfect, wilting rose, and “The Rose and The Poppy” offering a poppy.

“Sea Rose” rejects how a rose generally symbolizes beauty and love by writing “meagre flower, thin / sparse of leaf, / more precious / than a wet rose” (H.D. ll. 3-6). Roses, as a traditional symbol generally are perfect roses– symmetrical and perfect, slightly glistening, or as H.D. puts it, “wet.” H.D. offers a symbol of a disformed rose, with it having almost no leaves, and the actual body of the flower frail and weak, completely rejecting the usual symbol. In this, the poem challenges how the rose is seen rather than what the rose stands for; further, H.D. reverses how the symbol is presented, with it being the opposite of perfect, but still pointing out that it too can stand as a symbol of beauty by stating how precious it is. H.D. effectively changes how readers actually are viewing the rose– obviously, readers know it is a rose, and H.D. still characterizes it with the traditional meanings, but flips the symbol, casting an image of the imperfect rose within the audience’s minds, completely replacing the traditional symbol. The poem addresses the beauty symbolism through describing a flower floating through the waves, describing how it is “caught in the drift.” (H.D. li. 8). The poem does well with challenging the actual symbol by forcing readers to visualize a different kind of rose, and also addressing that it can also be beautiful by putting the rose against an ocean backdrop. H.D. almost rejects the usual symbol, and also uses an imperfect rose to signify how their poem is a rejection of patriarchy by suggesting that anything else other than the traditional symbol, even a wilting rose, is years better than the original. Thus, H.D. does well in creating a feminist message of visualizing how even though women may have less power, what they stand for is evermore perfect than that of patriarchal power. H.D. completely is able to replace the symbol with a different symbol through forcing imagery upon the reader, making the poem effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose, as it removes the symbol at the root and replaces it completely.

On the other hand, Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy” attempts to completely change the audience’s perception of a symbol of love. Puente offers a poppy as a replacement to the traditional symbol of a rose, stating how it is “[r]arely chosen for / eager hands on Valentine’s day – ” (Puente ll. 18-19) but immediately contrasting it with the poppy’s inherent beauty by writing how they “[scent] rooms with our fragrance.” (Puente li. 23). Puente challenges the rose completely as a traditional symbol of love and instead offers a different flower that is commonplace but forgotten (ironically), but isn’t particularly effective in doing so. While Puente does offer the poppy as another flower to symbolize love, the poem comes across less so as a challenge to the traditional symbol than as a poem to show that there is beauty in other flowers, not just roses. While it does challenge the symbolism of beauty in its fragrance and bright colors, the poem is not effective in completely challenging the whole traditional symbol of the rose as H.D.’s poem does. “The Rose and The Poppy” only serves to provide another option to what a rose traditionally symbolizes, while H.D.’s “Sea Rose” completely challenges the symbolism by forcing readers to visualize another symbol, while “The Rose and The Poppy” simply just places a rose and poppies beside each other to compare. Even more so, since poppies generally symbolize remembrance and death, Puente suggests that a flower to represent death being equivalent for love makes it abundantly clear that she is rejecting the patriarchal symbol, almost ridiculing it in showing that death is as good as an incredibly patriarchal symbol. Puente, in her usage of the poppy as a symbol, may also be condemning the traditional symbol of a rose to death, thus leading to the poppy having a double meaning, where it signifies the death of the traditional symbol, and pointing out that the rose’s traditional symbolism is just as good as death. However, Puente only compares the two, leading it to be a tad less effective than H.D.’s poem, who completely replaces the symbol.

Isaak Puth

The Symbol of the Rose

For next Thursday (2/22), students will compare H.D.’s “Sea Rose” and Adrianna Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy” to answer the following prompt:

Which poem is most effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose and why?

Please categorize under “The Symbol of the Rose” and don’t forget to create specific and relevant tags.  And please include your full name!  The blog post is due by next Thursday (2/22) 11:00am.

To learn more about H.D.’s life, click on this link.  Adrianna Puente is a UC Merced student who had her poem published in the campus journal for undergraduate student creative writing, The Vernal Pool.  Here is the link to the journal website: http://thepool.ucmerced.edu/

Never Let Go

Never Let Go by Simmy Kaur

Rose, soft rose,
unmarred and without stint of jewels,
abundant flower, thick,
sparse of leaf,

more precious
than a parched rose
single on a stem—
you are caught in the drift.

Stunted, with small leaf,
you are drowning in the ocean,
you are lifted
on the crisp door
that drives in the wind.

Can the blossoms
drip such sweet fragrance
thicken in a leaf?

Sea Rose by H.D. was already a work of art, entailing what it truly means to go through difficult times but still giving it all to remain strong and standing. While this poem challenged the typical symbol of a rose, I wanted to recreate the rose back to its traditional meaning while personifying it as Rose’s character from Titanic.

Rose Dewitt Bukater belonged to an abundantly rich family, but her heart was even wealthier with love for a man from a lower social class. Like a rose, she was beautiful and “…without stint of jewels” (Line 2), but deep down she always knew she was different. Money never made her happy, and she never fit in with the rest of her crowd. Falling in love and spending time with Jack bloomed her personality in ways she was never able to showcase in front of her family. In fact, her vibrant nature often surfaced when she was away from the rich, simply cherishing every moment with a man who had nothing to his name. This goes to show that money doesn’t buy happiness. A quality viewers occasionally forget about Rose is her independency. While the traditional symbolism for a rose is delicacy, the color red is defined as dominance and being able to hold onto courage. Such qualities heavily come into play when the tragedy of the Titanic ship occurs. Jack and Rose fight their way out of the ship after it crashes into a glacier, finding any which way to survive. I included “You are drowning in the ocean/ you are lifted/ on the crisp door” (Lines 10, 11, 12) in order to tell the story of how Rose demonstrated pain and strength of losing her best friend to freezing waters.

Real life stories like Titanic teach the audience what it means to represent a widespread of emotions when dealing with heartbreaking events. A strong female lead like Rose’s character is exactly what I believe to be like the flower and its glowing red hue: power and resilience. In a conventional viewpoint, a rose’s rich representation literally matches Rose’s wealth in money. Similarly, a rose’s strong tint coincides with her lively character and humor. They say that as long as a rose is attached at the root, the flower will continue to bloom. When a difficult and life changing event occurs, time will pass and it leads to growth. The further we progress in our society, the more we advocate and root for women empowerment, taking in consideration historical events regarding gender equality. Rose is the epitome of what it means to be a woman who doesn’t feel like she belongs in a society that forces her to act per her class and gender, and her ability to conform the social norms and do as she desires, regardless of consequences, is something to be inspired by in 2021.

Simranpreet Kaur

All Goes in the Way of the Rose

_{a wilted rose}

The word traditional is defined as ‘having existed for generations; habitually done, used, or produced.’  So it makes sense that traditions themselves are quality checks established by different cultures to diagnose special significance or symbolic meanings to objects, animals, or concepts.  This helps the people understand them better and adds richness to art forms that decide to use it.  These are present for everything, from complicated topics like oppression and betrayal to everyday objects like leaves and poppyseeds.  In Western culture, especially in an American context, there are specific connotations and symbols associated with the rose.  Roses are probably one of the most prevalent and widely recognized symbols of beautiful love in Western culture.  In almost all media, be it poetry, literature, artwork, or film, the rose is used as a tool to signify some form of passion or affection present, often romantic, yet somewhat artificial.  Afterall, most we see are perfect, trim tuck roses with no thorns, held in the hands of some begotten lover.  Depending on the color or stage of the flower, that may be youthful, pure love just blooming or a deep, dark passion that grips the young couple.  ‘Well, that’s all good and dandy,’ you may be thinking, ‘but how did this tradition come about, anyways’?  It all started way back in Ancient Greek and Roman times.  The rose was heavily associated with Aphrodite/Venus, the goddess of sexual love and beauty. Roses were the main decorations of her altars and wedding ceremonies.  Then the Christians used this symbol, and associated it with their Virgin Mary to symbolize fertility and beautiful love and it’s stuck ever since.   ‘Cool. Why does all this matter?’ Good question.  The answer is simple: to challenge the rules/traditions of the rose, one must first know what they are.  Only then can an effective counter be achieved.  

When comparing H.D. ‘s poem Sea Rose and Adriana Puente’s The Rose and the Poppy, one clearly sees that the former triumphs over the latter in achieving this goal.  Not only is H.D.’s longer and capable of providing a more honest breakdown, but he truly attacks the traditional notions of a rose.  His argument is that the traditional view of the rose is unrealistic and unaffected by the world.  Consider line 1-2: “rose, harsh rose, marred and with a stint of petals”.  Immediately, H.D. throws out the connotative beauty we have associated with the rose.  No, his rose is harsh, scarred and with little petals.  This paints the rose as very unattractive, almost cruel, it is not a rose that one gives to show love.  But is that so true?  Sure, the rose is not this idealized “wet rose” of dew and sugary sunsets, but is that so wrong?  Afterall, this is a rose that has been through hardships, left scarred like a body dragged through years of turmoil and pain. Yet, it still persists.  It is “caught in the drift”, (line 8) not tied to a single stem, moving wherever the wind takes it.  It experiences life as a person would and does not hold any false pretense of perfection or the idea that love is this easy beautiful, thing.  He exemplifies this notion with lines 14-16: “Can the spice-rose drip such acrid fragrance hardened in a leaf?”  Could a traditional rose hold such experiences? Can any of us see ourselves and our lives in such a rose, blemish-less and clean?  Maybe this rose does not symbolize our commoditized version of love, but something deeper, something more raw.  It’s effective because it is true.

Jojo C. Chukwueloka

You Have Seen My Beauty…Now Let Me Show You My Scars

Diane Tarabay-Rodriguez 

Have you received a rose for Valentine’s Day, or on a day that, for some reason, your lover was feeling a little romantic? You looked into their eyes and you felt an unexplainable feeling right between your chest, right? You completely ignored the rose at first. Do you know why? I do. That rose was not just a rose, it meant so much more. That love and romance that you thought had faded over time all of a sudden came back with the presence of such a beautiful rose.

Roses have become known to symbolize love, beauty, passion and romance. There are two poems that talk about a rose. H.D.’s “Sea Rose” and Punente’s “The Rose and the Poppy” both had a very creative way of talking about a rose in their poems. 

In the poem, The Rose and The Poppy, Puente’s talks about the traditional symbol of a rose and completely opposes it and turns against it. For example, she states, “Not a ravishing ruby red” (Line 2) and “Nor am I a symbol of romance” (Line 5). She later writes, “I am wild in fields of green and blues” (Lines 11 and 12) and “like tangerines in an orchard of trees” (Line 14). Her poem is undeniably brilliant, but she does NOT challenge the traditional symbol of the rose. She states the typical symbol of a rose and then mentions that she is NOT like a rose. 

On the other hand, in the poem, Sea Rose, H.D. effectively challenges the traditional symbol of the rose by talking about a rose that is ” marred and with stint of petals” (line 2). This shows a different type of rose, separate from the typical “beautiful” one. This specific rose is in no particular way a symbol of romance. In this case, the rose is meant to represent someone who has struggled. Even though the rose has seen some bad days, it is “more precious than a wet rose” (Line 5 and 6). Despite all the things this rose is going through, it’s still getting by. The struggles it has gone through is what makes it even more beautiful.

Disfigured Beauty

When asked to think about what the rose symbolizes, I’m sure that most people think of love, romance, elegance, perfection, and beauty. But what if the symbolism of the rose changed? In both Adrianna Puente’s “The Rose and the Poppy” and H.D.’s “Sea Rose” the classic meaning of the rose is challenged, but one of the poems does a better job at doing so. Through the use of imagery and diction, “Sea Rose” is able to effectively challenge what the rose traditionally symbolizes. 

From the first line, the reader can tell that there is a possibility that their idea of what a rose symbolizes will be contradicted, all with the word “harsh”. As the first stanza continues on, The author uses words such as “meagre”, “thin”, “marred”, and “sparse” to describe the qualities and features of the rose in the poem. The diction here is important because it seems to point out the flaws of the rose, making it seem “less than” the traditional idea of a rose. After reading this, the reader might think that the speaker does not enjoy this rose or see beauty in it, but that idea will shift after moving on to the second stanza. 

To start the second stanza, the speaker says the rose is “more precious than a wet rose” (lines 5-6). This word choice acts as a way to draw the reader’s attention. Perhaps it is meant to cause the readers to feel a shift in tone. This phrase creates a paradox within the poem. Additionally, it shows that the speaker thinks highly of the “harsh” and “meagre” rose, more so than the traditional rose. The rest of the second stanza explains why the speaker enjoys the rose they are describing. It does so by saying the rose is more lovely than the typical rose because it sits alone, “caught in the drift”, rather than in a vase. This imagery helps show the readers the experiences the rose has gone through in comparison to others. I think that this is meant to call on the audience to see the beauty in the disfigured and mistreated. 

In Puente’s “The Rose and the Poppy” the traditional symbol of the rose is still challenged, but, in my opinion, less effectively. When talking about the symbolism of the rose, Puente mentions the traditional meanings and it isn’t until she talks about the other flower, the poppy, that the reader might think to themselves, “hey, maybe the rose isn’t as great as it’s made out to be.” I got stuck on the fact that Puente mentions the romanticism of the rose a large amount, which left me unable to feel the effects of the poppy. For me, it was the execution of the poem that left me struggling to understand the meaning.

I enjoyed both poems, but one of them affected my view of the rose more. Because H.D. does a fabulous job at weaving diction and imagery into the poem, painting an elaborate picture that alters the reader’s view of the rose, “Sea Rose” is able to challenge the traditional symbol of the rose much more effectively than Puente’s “The Rose and the Poppy”

Sophia Wallace-Boyd

So,You Thought We Were Talking About Real Roses?

By: Sofia Garcia

Symbols are a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. Common objects such as a rose can traditionally signify love, or can it? Poets enjoy playing around like that. They can take a symbol so common and often simple, but make so complex. “Sea Rose” by H.D. and “The Rose and The Poppy” by Adrianna Puente both mention roses in their tittles and their poems. In neither poem does the rose symbolize love.

Adrianna Puente’s poem directly states that this poem’s rose has nothing to do with love, romance, etc. By saying, “Nor am I a symbol of romance” speaker is letting the audience know “don’t even think about depicting this as a love poem”. The rose Puente talks about in her poem is the exact opposite of what it traditionally symbolizes. The rose does not exist it is only a poppy putting itself down by comparing itself to a rose in every other stanza. The poppy is personified, and we can see this in the first and second stanzas which start with “I am” in which the poppy is talking and comparing itself to a wilted rose. We can infer the poppy is comparing itself with a wilted rose because in line 22 the poppy says, “we each wilt between dried petals”. “We” is referring to both the poppy’s petals and the roses petals.

In “Sea Rose” by H.D. the rose she talks about in her poem is not a symbol of love. The speaker in the poem is talking about an actual rose. Someone or something is being compared to a rose. H.D. is using the beauty of the rose in lines five and six, “more precious/ than a wet rose.” The poet uses lines H.D. is not using the rose as a what it is traditionally represent, but she is going with its physical aspects of the rose instead.

Adrianna Puente’s poem is more effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose.

Roses oh my

Roses can mean many things to many people. The poems for the week are both different takes on challenging the tradtional definition of what a rose is, be it for themselves or from societies take.
In H.D.’s poem “Sea Rose” they are challenging what makes a rose beautiful by being almost mean to a rose by calling it ugly, meagre, and bad smelling. Although a tad difficult to understand what they are saying about roses in general, but it seems to be speaking about just one rose in general. The rose seems to almost be the speaker itself, as if they are critizing themselves for not being like the rest of the roses around them and putting themselves down for what they are not. In lines “more precious / than a wet rose / single on a stem — / you are caught in the drift.”, it seems as if they are saying themselves are precious to only themselves because they are the only rose on their stem. With being caught in the drift they could be propelling themselves further into being their own unique selves.
In Adrianna Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy”, it defines what a rose is to them then buids off it to say that all flowers should be treated th same because they will end up rotting into umber or being apart of the same potpourri. I found it mildly interesting that even tho the speaker says they are more of an electric orange in a field of wild blue and greens, it never really says what kind of flower it really is, except for in the title. Another thing that caught my eye was the stanza’s, they got smaller in length each time, the number of lines are close to the number of petals needed to make a good looking rose when crafting.
Smells seem to be the important aspect of both poems at the very end. In H.D.’s “Sea rose” the line “drip such acrid fragrance” and in Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy” the line “scenting rooms with our fragance”. It is in this that they really challenge the symbol of a rose in my opinion because roses are supposed to be one of the best or better smelling flowers out there but here they are saying the same like everyone else or they smell so bad that acid would be better. Both decide to have the attribute at the end of their poems, so that the impact of them stays with us and makes us think about it afterward.

Lauren Hamilton