I am the Poppy

When I first read this poem while doing the assignment, I was so impressed that I decided to recreate the emotions of the poem exactly as I felt the poem. And that’s what I recreated ‘The Rose and The Poppy.’ The main point of my poem is Poppy. Therefore, I wrote the poem in the shape of a ‘flower’ resembling Poppy. The order of reading this poem is not fixed; the audience can read it as they want.

In the original poem ‘The Rose and The Poppy’, the poet strongly asserts the poppy’s uniqueness in contrast to the rose. Furthermore, the poet explains the original beauty of the poppy. Hence, I compared the various colors of the Rose to the orange color of the Poppy. And I wrote about the uniqueness of the poppy. Additionally, I recreated every beautiful phrase from the original poem as I understood them while reading. For example, the original poem explains the beauty of the rose using the past and the future timeline. I really like this method, because it means the rose is very common and everyone can remember all the moments with their rose. So, I twist this part and emphasize the symbol of the rose, love.

The lines at the top of the flower petals all represent the differences between the Rose and the Poppy. The part corresponding to the stigma of the flower describes the Poppy itself. The lines at the bottom of the petals all highlight the characteristics of Poppy. Particularly, since the original poem does not mention the narcotic addiction that Poppies are known for, I incorporated this aspect to emphasize Poppy’s free will and identity. A poppy is a flower that someday has to wilt and drop its leaves into the ground. So, when someone sees poppies in the field, one can only see the flower and stem. Inspired by this, I wrote the stem section exactly as in the original poem. Because the entire words in the original poem gave me the feeling of the poppy’s personality and free will. In the stem part, while the original poem mentions ‘scenting rooms,’ I changed it to ‘Nature’ to emphasize the free will of Poppy. Since the Poppy is a part of the flower that I mentioned, it cannot last forever. And the feeling that it will wither someday, ‘Rotting into umber,’ is included to capture the essence of the original poem.

~Jisoo Jang

A Poppy by Any Other Name

Between H.D.’s “Sea Rose” and Adriana Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy”, “Sea Rose” is more effective at challenging the traditional symbol of the rose. The speaker contradicts a typical perfect, delicate, feminine, and soft rose by describing this rose as “harsh” and “marred and with stint of petals” (lines 1-2). The rose is disfigured, lacking, and inadequate. Again, the rose is “meager”, “thin”, and “sparse” (lines 3-4). The rose is lacking in petals, leaves, and size. It does not measure up to the ideal beauty of a rose. Roses are typically in a bush, garden, bouquet, or vase. This rose is “caught in the drift” and “flung on the sand” (lines 8 and 10). Most roses given as gifts are cared for and thoughtfully selected. This rose is in a situation that is foreign to others: it is caught in a wild wind and tossed around without care. The speaker’s use of apostrophe links readers to the rose. A person who is lacking (in some respect) will not be treated like a traditional, cherished rose. That inadequate person will be flung around by a careless wind. However, there is a freedom in the unrestrained movement of the sand and wind (that a typical rose would not experience). This rose nears turbulent waters that other roses would never see. Similarly, this rose-person will be enlightened by experiences and struggles that other—more perfect—people would never face. Although it is not clear whether or not H.D. is the speaker, H.D.’s struggles with her parents likely impacted the rose’s journey in this poem. H.D.’s distant father and mother’s favoritism towards her brother paint of picture of disappointment.

In “The Rose and The Poppy”, the speaker does not challenge the traditional symbol of the rose for a majority of the poem. The first stanza draws on traditional symbolic meanings of a rose. The speaker does not identify with being a rose because they do not meet the traditional expectations that come with being “the flower you give to a lover, / or a token of comfort you give to a friend in the hospital” (lines 4-5). The speaker identifies all of a rose’s traditional connotations but compares themself to a poppy that is “wild in a field of greens and blues. / Electric orange-” (lines 12-13). The speaker abandons roses rather than challenging or altering a rose’s meaning. A rose’s traditional meaning does not align with the speaker’s identity, so they chose a different flower to represent themselves. Later, the speaker acknowledges that everyone mixes together in a “potpourri of our colors” (line 21). These flowers are dried and dull with petals falling apart. This contradicts the typical, lively and lush rose symbol. Roses are valued for their beauty, fullness, and fragrance, but these flowers have undergone a major transformation. In a potpourri, roses and poppies alike will “each wilt between dried petals – / scenting rooms with our fragrance / Rotting into umber” (lines 22-24). In the end, everything dies and leaves marks on its surroundings (like that fragrance). Rose and poppies are both susceptible to time and meet their ends in the same dark, rotted state. Although these flowers have different paths, they are indistinguishable from each other in their final moments.

~Miki Chroust

Picture of a Rose

After reading H.D.’s “Sea Rose” and Adrianna Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy”, I believe the former is most effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose. The rose is often used to symbolize love, and romance. It is also known for its delicate and beautiful nature. In H.D. ‘s poem “Sea Rose”, the rose is longer a delicate or beautiful thing. It is harsh, “marred and with stint of petals”. Here, the speaker is challenging the very beauty the rose is supposed to possess and represent. It is no longer a soft, delicate flower, but a harsh one. It is no longer beautiful but disfigured with a stint or an inadequate supply of petals. The picture of a rose, a symbol of great beauty, is now being tarnished. H.D. goes on to describe the rose as a meagre flower, “thin, sparse of leaf”. Again, the rose’s beauty is being challenged. It is inadequate and because it does not have enough petals, it is thin, and without its usual fullness. It is its fullness that adds to its beauty. In the second to the last stanza, the flower is “lifted in the crisp sand that drives in the wind”. The use of the words wind and the sand, insinuates the rose is drifting along the shoreline of some beach. Hence it being a sea rose. There is great beauty to be found in this stanza. The short lines mimic the eb and flow of the waves as it crashes onto the shore. It also mimics the ease with which the wind carries the flower. The beauty of the stanza, contrast to the lack of beauty from the rose. A question is raised here. What might be the purpose of placing a rose at the sea? It is as unusual as the rose. Yet, the stanza is beautiful, and it wouldn’t be without the presence of the rose.  H.D. challenged the rose as a symbol of beauty and presented it in a different light. It has lost all its traits that make it ‘beautiful’. It is hash, and thin. But its presence on the beach suggests that there is still beauty to be found in the unusual. In the other. In the things that are not commonly viewed as beautiful. In Adrianna Puente’s poem, “The Rose and The Poppy”, the traditional symbol of the rose is not challenged. Instead it is reinforced as a way for the speaker to contrast it to the poppy. The speaker describes the rose as ravishing, pure. As a “symbol of romance…a beautiful rouge” (Puente). In the next stanza, the speaker talks of the poppy, which is an “electric orange like tangerines in an orchard of trees”. This poppy, they say, is hardly chosen to be given to lovers on Valentine’s Day. Again, the rose is not being challenged as a symbol for love, romance, and beauty. It is these very traits that the speaker exploits to reveal the unseen beauty of the poppy. For this reason, H.D. ‘s poem is more effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose. He took its pretty image and flipped it right on its head.

Bella Cortez

The Rose on a Pedestal

By Katherine Deras

The poem which most effectively challenges the traditional symbol of the rose is Adrianna Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy” poem. In today’s society, roses are highly associated with love but Puente’s poem goes against these common associations about roses. In puente’s poem the first couple of lines say ” I am / not a ravishing ruby red / or a semblance of purity white.” This line already states how she wants to be known for something different such as individuality and uniqueness. This line shows how she does not want to be associated with a roses typical image. Roses are typically known for being red and white which hold different meanings. In lines 17-20 she says “Most times I am forgotten./ Rarely chosen for / eager hands on Valentine’s day-/ but I am my own.” This shows how because she is different from a rose she is never chosen. Roses are commonly given on Valentines day which is why she rarely ever gets chosen. She would much rather be a poppy flower because they are different. She would much rather be described as “wild in the field of greens and blues”. This lines shows a sense of freedom and uniqueness. A rose is stuck on a pedestal that a poppy will never have because they are different and never chosen. Puente would much rather be a poppy who can be free and different compared to a rose who already has an image that society upholds.

The Unorthodox Rose

In the two poems “Sea Rose” by H.D. and “The Rose and The Poppy” by Adrianna Puente, they both have a different meaning when it comes to representing what a traditional rose actually is. To start off with “The Rose and The Poppy”, this poem explains a different type of flower. They start off the poem by saying “I am/ not a ravishing ruby red/ or a semblance of purity white.”. There are three main different types of roses, red roses, white roses, and pink roses. In the poem it starts off with explaining how this type of flower is none of them. Then the author goes on to say “I am/ wild in field of green and blues”, describing a different type of flower. Based on the title I am guessing it is a Poppy. Lastly, these lines stood out to me the most “Rarely chosen for/ eager hands on  Valentine’s day”, which is sad because roses are the most popular flower on Valentine’s day, and no one usually ever gets Poppies. However, this poem didn’t challenge what the traditional rose represents, instead it gave a new look into a different underrepresented flower.

The poem “Sea Rose” is more effective in challenging what the traditional rose represents, as the poem gives a whole new meaning to what a rose could be. In the first stanza, it starts off by saying “Rose, harsh rose,/ marred and with stint of petals,/ meagre flower, thin,/sparse of leaf,”, this is giving a clear picture of an ugly dead rose. Then it goes on to say in the last stanza “Can the spice-rose/ drip such acrid fragrance/ hardened in a leaf?”, usually roses are known to smell good but in this poems it describes an acrid fragrance. Acrid is a strong or unpleasant smell, which is not like the typical rose smell. This poem is giving a clear description of the opposite of what the traditional rose is known for. This poem almost describes a plant in the sea, which is why it is titled “Sea Rose”. 

Joseph Jordan

Sea Rose Vs The poppy

Both poems include imagery as well as strong metaphors. The thing is both poems talk about more than just a single rose one talk’s about the poppy with is Adrianna’s poem and the other talks about the Sea Rose. If you were to read the poem “Sea Rose” you wouldn’t think much of it although that’s not what the dictionary says, the dictionary gives you a completely different flower that is unique as the rose and both are similar when it comes to describing woman. The poem “rose and the poppy” talks about not only a rose but also talks about a flower poppy. The poem that is most effective in challenging the traditional symbol of the rose would be the rose and the poppy.

The reason I say this it’s because the poem is full of metaphors but what do you think when you think of a rose? Strong, beautiful, lover and kind although this wouldn’t exactly be the traditional simbol of the rose for me. A rose is a woman and I believe that the poem is telling me exactly this, “scenting rooms with our fragrance” the poem is not talking about the rose scent itself but its talking about woman’s fragrance their own smell because the poem gives us metaphors, comparing the rose to a woman. “Most times I am forgotten” this is another comparison between the rose and woman a rose can be forgotten once it dies, swell as woman can be forgotten from time to time. The poet uses imagery to describe “I am not a revising ruby red” to tell us that the poet is not talking about a rose itself but it’s talking about someone else about a person so in this case personification. The reason why I say that the rose and the poppy has more of a traditional symbol to the rose it’s because a poet will never actually talk about a rose, but instead of a metaphor and I felt like the poem “Sea Rose” Explained more of an actual rose than what a rose can represent.

-Ana Munos

The Rose

I believe the most effective poem that challenges what most people think about when it comes to a rose is the poem The Rose and The Poppy by Adrianna Puente. The poem first off gives the notion that a rose isn’t all as what people think it should be, the rose in the poem is “dragged”. The tone toward the rose seems to be unimpressed with roses, “we each wilt between dried petals” (line 22). The rose is just like any other flower, people are the ones that make it out to seem that it is the best flower to give “rarely chosen for eager hands on Valentine’s day” (lines 18-19). The tone therefore as I see it really is one of doubt, not anger doubt but just doubt as to why people chose the rose over any other flower. The poem also gives me an image of a field full of flowers an abundance of flowers that one can have different options, which gives me another tone of hopefulness, “I am wild in fields of green and blues” (lines 11-12). One will see the poppy and maybe think twice about just picking a rose, after all they all come from the same space. This poem I preferred than the poem Sea Rose by H. D. because the Sea Rose poem just enforced at least for me that roses are one of a kind. It also doesn’t matter where you get a rose, it still is ideal to get, “more precious than a wet rose” (lines 6-7). The poem The Rose and The Poppy is for me a different outlook on the Rose because it actually gives me the tone that Rose’s aren’t just the any flower that we should think about when gifting to someone we love. There’s many other choices and we need to realize are available to us; we don’t need to follow the trend.

• Maria Mendiola

Underdog v. Monster

Roses have always had the pleasure of being connotated to feelings of love and care, and while to many they make for great late Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day gifts, writers and poets from around the world have began to challenge the rose’s long-standing symbol. Of the two poems assigned this week, “Sea Rose” by H.D. does a better job of challenging the current status of the rose than does Adrianna Puente’s “The Rose and the Poppy”. The reason for this conclusion comes to the fact that while Adrianna Puente’s poem continues the tradition of a “beautiful rose”, she also champions for the beauty of the poppy. The poppy in Puente’s poem is clearly the underdog against the mighty rose, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its own unique characteristics that makes it beautiful in its own right. While Puente makes it known that the poppy is beautiful, the rose in H.D. is a complete monster, her first description of the flower being “harsh”. This rose is “marred and stint with petals”, a “meagre flower, thin”, the complete opposite of how roses are usually described. Even though this monster of a flower might not be everyone’s cup of tea, in H.D.’s view, it is no more different than a regular, “beautiful” rose due to the fact that beauty is not limited to that of physical characteristics. By stating that a monster flower could replace the traditional rose, H.D. makes a more effective argument over Puente, who more so wants the “underdog” poppy to replace the mighty rose.

Poppy v. Rose

I feel that “The Rose and the Poppy” by far does the better job at challenging the concept of the rose. This is because this poem proposes a challenger to the rose in efforts to deconstruct the exact reasons that we value roses. A challenger that in its own right has unique and amazing qualities, yet is still overlooked, leaving me questioning what exactly it is about the rose that makes it so exalted. Whereas the poem “Sea Rose”, I feel, is more of a rejection of the traditional symbol of the rose, through the praise of the authors preferred type of rose. Which may even be a view of the worlds shifting values and its effect on the world around it.

            Adrianna Puente starts off her poem by telling us what the subject of the poem is not and how it does not compare to the idyllic rose. But, does that matter at all? Are these the only traits that matter? She then follows that with a very expressive and vivid first-person account of a Poppy that is aware of its unfair place yet is indifferent. This beautiful flower that has the confidence to be secure in its own greatness, symbolizing how it demands our respect.

• Andrew Hardy

Rose of Evanescent, you Stood not a Chance with the Forgotten Poppy

By Mitaya La Pierre

When I think of a rose, I like to generally think of romance; I like to consider the red hue of the flower and the love it can symbolize. But when I think about what could be seen as ‘challenging’ that symbolism; two poems come up to par. One, “The Rose and The Poppy” by UC Merced student Adrianna Puente, and two, “Sea Rose” by H. D. Now, both poems are very explicit in re introducing the symbolism of the rose; however I find myself more drawn to the UC student’s poem rather than H.D’s poem, but let me explain!

In “Sea Rose”, the speaker is apparently sighting a pathetic rose, drifting in the sea, not having having anything particularly special about it. I felt initially drawn to this because the poem then compares spice to the ‘sea rose’; which I thought was a strange comparison. But when re reading Puente’s poem, I could see a true de characterization of the rose symbol, and a re flourish of the definitions ‘unique’,  and ‘lovely’. Which in this case is the presumed “Poppy”. 

In lines 1-3, the speaker of the poem disallows any notion of it being a rose.

“I am

not a ravishing ruby red,

or a semblance of purity white.”

And through lines 4-10, the speaker then goes on to describe the abilities of a rose; the flower you give out of love, condolences; a flower you represent with a beautiful red, a passionate event’s must have. 

“Not the flower you give to a lover,

or a token of comfort you give to a friend in the hospital.

Nor am I a symbol of romance

–

of new moments to

be made,

of old memories to be cherished.

Though I am not a beautiful rouge,

Buds picked to be set onto a bed of down and wine”

So here we are re iterating it’s human perceived ‘uniqueness’, it purpose, and everything else the rose is meant for. Yet we are also reminded that the speaker is NONE of these adjectives. So still we read to find out what they could be. We go down further, to lines 11-14

“I am

wild in fields of green and blues.

Electric orange

–

like tangerines in an orchard of trees”

Now this speaker is describing what they are, instead of what they are not. Here, it is not just any orange but ‘Electric’ orange color, and born of green and blues. This is very much not a rose; not just because the speaker said so, but the introduction is so different from any other rose. 

“my skin’s perfume meshed

in the summer breeze.

Most times I am forgotten.

Rarely chosen for 

eager hands on Valentine’s day

–

but I am my own.”

The not-rose describes that it may not be picked for Valentine’s, but that it has other desirable qualities like, a beautiful scent and extraordinary coloring. That it is ‘unique’.

“In a potpourri of our colors

we each wilt

between dried petals

–

Scenting rooms

with our fragrance.

Rotting

into umber”

In the last few lines of the poem, the flower then describes a scene, a scene of her and other flowers like her all rotting for scent in a potpourri bowl. This part struck me most peculiarly because flowers are traditionally known for scent. And by standards of what the speaker is saying, if we put the perfume of this flower in our homes, all of time, then why is it not revered more perfectly? Why doesn’t “The Rose” get less credit than the “The Poppy”? And the answer is clear, that those things that are talked about the most; as in the rose that is seen as such a symbol of beauty and romance–tends to lack a uniqueness. Simply because everyone sees it as ‘special’, rather than a collective small group who can notice the actually ‘unique’ beauty of the wild poppy flower. While the rose has its assumptive traditional roles, ones played all of the time, this poem takes the role of ‘special’ out of it, and puts the new notion of ‘romance’ into the poppy. Majorly because its spoken of in such an defined yet divine way, its hard to try and not wonder if the Poppy is more special and more of a symbol of ‘passion’ and ‘love’ then the rose. After all, isn’t love more special, when only a select few see it’s worth in something completely different?