The Rose
It sits behind the glass, teasing onlookers as they pass.
“For true beauty should be hidden and kept away.
Guarded from the troubles of the outside,”
is what they all say.
But little do they know where the real danger lies.
Slowly, bit by bit,
little by little,
the magic that holds it together begins to fade, and its beauty and strength begin to dim.
It wants to cry out and beg for help.
But how foolish would that be?
The glass is thick and covered in ice.
No one would hear a thing.
Besides, pretty things should stay quiet.
Pretty things shouldn’t cause a ruckus.
And so, the pretty thing stays silent out of fear of being ugly.
Out of fear of being weak.
And so it continues,
sitting there, behind the frozen glass, teasing onlookers as they pass.
There is a room in the natural history museum at Harvard University, where they house a collection of the most astonishing glass flowers, including roses of course. These glass flowers were created so that botany students at Harvard could study them when they weren't in bloom, and they were created by a master glassworker with such skill that they seem real, and even today, we have no idea how he created such delicate and complex glass flowers.
ReplyDeleteIt doubt that this poem is about a flower from that museum, but it could be, if a few details were changed (like the part about the glass being covered in ice). I interpret the poem as being about the human tendency to want to protect and preserve beauty. The sad part is when the beauty is a human being, and the "protection" amounts to oppression, as adults instill fear in some young people (usually but not always girls), thinking it will protect them, when it really just makes the young person feel afraid.
So, this is also easily read as a kind of feminist poem about girls being overprotected, and I am guessing that the entire class will see this also. What to say about the poem from there?
I will offer one overall suggestion for improvement: I was distracted by how some of the language does not fit with your image of a rose behind glass. A rose does not cry out, and its silence is natural to it, whereas the silence in this poem is meant to be dark and oppressive. I also kept wondering in what context a glass case would be covered in ice. I can't think of one. I personally feel the poem would be more cogent and brilliant if the image of containment and social repression fit better with some of the descriptions applied to it. It's hard for me to get my head around the idea of a rose that wants to cry out for help.
The poem expresses such an important message. It wouldn't take that much work to make it more coherent within its own terms. Either way, it's a really strong first draft to a poem that is already clear and incisive and has even more potential.