Comparing Love Poems

Poetry can be construed inversely by numerous people; this may lead someone to be convinced that all poems are vastly dissimilar from one another. However, this is not always the case, in fact, numerous poems can share the same theme or imagery while speaking of completely diverse things. Both H.D.’s (Hilda Doolittle) “Sea Rose” and Elizabeth Bishop’s “Vague Poem” have one obvious connection: Roses. But as a reader it is significant to analyze if there are any further similarities. I feel the only way to do this is to further understand both poem writers and to do this the reader must understand their past experience which lead them to the creation of their rose related works. Perhaps they have more in common than just a simple rose.
Hilda
In fact, Hilda was someone who didn’t feel obliged to go with the societal norms. She was fairly promiscuous and considered herself to be a bisexual (an individual who is sexually interested in both males and females) and felt no shame towards it. Her strong feelings and emotions toward her sexual orientation can also be seen in her writing as they focus on women’s politics, gender and alternative forms of spirituality. She had a lover by the name of Annie Winifred Ellerman better recognized as: Bryher. Bryher was her pen name (similar to H.D.) due to individuals believing that women should not write text work (Oxford Bibliographies). I believe that Doolittle describes Bryher and herself in her poem “Sea Rose”. The rose is a delicate article that cannot withstand the stress and weight of its environment. Similar to how women were not allowed to use their full potential in their living due to the societal norms of the nineteenth century. However, in “Sea Rose” although the rose is pushed by waves and hit with sand it is still able to let out a sweet smell and stay intact (H.D.). This is meant to clarify that although the world does not seem ready for female writers, the writers are ready to be a portion of the changing world. Doolittle and Ellerman have no intentions of stopping their writing. Her persistence allowed her to be the first woman to win the
However, both roses are not the generic rose that we see in a flower shop in the corner store. One rose is a Sea rose which looks closer to a pink daisy than an actual rose. In fact, Sea Roses appear more delicate than actual roses. They contain much less petals and lack any form of prickly protection. If wafted by the shore due to the winds, they become forcefully pushed by waves and sand. However, similar to how Doolittle describes in her poem, they’re resilient and continue to grow by the sea. H.D. compares the strength of these flowers to those of the female writer (H.D.). Bishop takes a different approach to the common rose, in reality, the rose she describes is not a flower at all, it is a geode (Bishop). Initially I could see why a reader would question why Bishop would use a stone rather than an actual flower in her writing, they are both beautiful. However, in Bishop’s mind, the stone is much stronger and more resilient than the plant. I believe the stone accurately represents Bishop’s past lover, Soares as well. She was an architect in Brazil who worked with precious materials which could consist of stones. Both writers describe the “rose” to have a form of strength as well as importance. However, the other less obvious meanings for the roses in both poems diverge substantially. Hilda Doolittle writes of the oppression of women during her