ModPo 2013 #14 Orphium Frutescens and the exotic, on Doolittle's "Sea Rose"

Note: I am currently taking a course on Coursera.org called Modern and Contemporary American Poetry taught by Al Filreis of the University of Pennsylvania. I will be posting my thoughts on the course discussions here.

Image from strangewonderfulthings.com

Sea Rose

BY H. D.

Rose, harsh rose,
marred and with stint of petals,
meagre flower, thin,
sparse of leaf,

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

Stunted, with small leaf,
you are flung on the sand,
you are lifted
in the crisp sand
that drives in the wind.
Can the spice-rose
drip such acrid fragrance
hardened in a leaf?

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Here I am on week 3! I really enjoyed the video discussion on Sea Rose. Twenty-two minutes on the sparse rose by H.D! I liked the contrast with the American Beauty rose. I especially loved that last line from the video on the "bullshit analogies between the social/ economic and nature" springing from the famous Rockefeller quote on beauty created out of sacrifice. 

With the rise of imagism, there is a direct rejection of the conventional metaphors, all that are taken for granted. It is easy to bring up a rose and it automatically creates an association with beauty, delicacy, love. Even today, that is evident (flower shops still make tons of money on Valentine's day even here in the Philippines). 

My question, though, deals with how one destruction of metaphor brings up a new metaphor (that will probably need destroying later on!). By turning the tables on the conventional American Beauty rose, H.D. praises the Sea Rose as it is: its hardiness, its sparseness, its acrid (vs. the savory and sweet) fragrance. What one doesn't automatically get is that the Sea Rose is actually a rare breed. While it is hardy and can survive on the shores of coastal South Africa, it is considered an exotic plant. Taken out of its natural environment, a Sea Rose will not survive without manual (and careful) intervention since it doesn't pollinate without the buzzing of the African carpenter bee. Neither will it survive in warmer climates (anything above 20 degrees centigrade). 

By rejecting the American Beauty rose, H.D. raises up the supposedly lowly Sea Rose and with it, exoticism. "Stunted, sparse of leaf, flung on the sand," in contrast with the lush and sweet-smelling roses of convention, what H.D. fails to mention is that the Sea Rose is hard to come by. Given this, it really is a metaphor of the imagism of H.D.'s time, something that is still emerging and definitely not commonplace.

Does this mean, like Dickinson ahead of her, that H.D. is pushing for the rare, the effortful, the difficult, thus isolating poetry from the common man? 

Seen from a 2013 lens, I also see the Sea Rose as a metaphor for beauty (and poetry--using meta language) that is rooted in its native shores. It is not "cultured," it is not an exotic that is put on a pedestal to be gawked at. The Sea Rose thrives in its environment. Even if it is harsh, sparse, acrid, it does what it does without being ornamental. It survives.

Note: I am currently taking a course on Coursera.org called Modern and Contemporary American Poetry taught by Al Filreis of the University of Pennsylvania. I will be posting my thoughts on the course discussions here.