Compare the Ways in Which Two Poets Use the Symbol of a Rose and Explore the Effects of Their Words Upon the Reader.

Compare the ways in which two poets use the symbol of a rose and explore the effects of their words upon the reader.

A rose is most commonly known to represent love and affection towards another person. However, it can be used to symbolize the opposite feelings as the reader understands in the first poem, A Gift of a Rose. Both poems, A Gift of a Rose and A Red, Red Rose describe the rose, but in two very contrasting aspects of love and desire and hatred and blood. A Red, Red Rose, written by Robert Burns, uses positive connotations of the word ‘Rose’ to describe his affections to his love and uses the traditional cliché of a rose to show this. Robert Burns uses a rose in a conventional way to declare his love in a Sonnet form as one would have done in the 18th century. Through the use of repetition of the word ‘Red’ in the title, it suggests a deep and matured love for the other person. Burns confirms this idea of deep love when he says, “So deep in luve am I,” telling the reader directly what the poem is about. The poem also consists of hyperboles which also show the depth of his love as he is comparing her to all the things he finds beautiful or fascinating, such as “a red, red rose,” which is also how he sees her. By using a capital letter at the beginning of the words ‘Luve’ and ‘Dear’, it emphasises his affection for the other person and makes the poem seem more loving and affectionate. In contrast, A Gift of a Rose, written by Fred D’Aguiar, does not use a ‘red, red rose’ as a cliché, but instead subverted the word to describe discrimination, hurt and open wounds, with violent diction, metaphorical phrases and negative connotations. This poem describes a discrimination against a black person. The use of a red rose in this poem is to symbolise violence, anger and bloodshed. The use of a red rose gives a sarcastic tone to the poem, reflecting on the way black people were treated at the time. Metaphors such as “a bunch of red roses”, meaning several wounds and “I have a bouquet of my own for them”, meaning many ways of revenge, add to the harshness of the poem and gives a sense of disturbance to the reader as it makes the thorns on a rose much more prominent than the flower itself. Alliteration is also used such as “a rose for a rose” to add emphasis on getting revenge and the hurt that has been caused. The phrase “red, red roses” in this poem, suggests a very deep sense of anger and violence inside the victim and in this case, the lack of love towards the person discriminated. When comparing the two poems, the reader discovers that the rose has many different meanings and can be used to symbolise to very contrasting situations of love and of revenge. A Red, Red Rose is a far gentler poem which uses much softer and flowing words such as ‘played’, ‘mile’, ‘smile’, ‘will’, ‘still’ etc. they all use the letter ‘l’ which adds a lyrical rhythm to the poem. Whereas A Gift of a Rose uses far harsher and violent diction, such as ‘statistic’, ‘ice’, ‘exit’, ‘epithets’ etc, which all use the letter ‘t’ which is harsh sounding and negative. However, both poems do use repetition for example; “red, red roses” is used in both poems to show the depth of feeling in the writer. The gift of a rose also repeats the words “rose” and “flowers” throughout the poem, emphasising the hurt and pain, whereas a red, red rose only has to say the word once to show his love as the sonnet structure of the poem gives the idea away. In conclusion, the word rose can be expressed in several ways and have several meanings which may contradict one another but overall have similar meanings. A gift of a rose uses the symbol of a rose to show revenge, violence, anger and hurt but still use it in symbolising feelings, whereas the feelings shown in a red, red rose, are very much opposite and have an opposite effect on the reader through use of language, metaphors and the meaning of the rose symbol.