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Poet: Robert Frost
Poem: 3.
The Rose Family
Volume: West-Running Brook
Year: Published/Written in 1928
Comment 20 of 20, added on February 27th, 2008 at 1:45 PM.
Here's a quick analysis I wrote for my AP U.S. poetry class on this poem:
Early American poet Robert Frost was known for using simple diction for complex themes and ironic thoughts. Although his poems were pithy and concise in word choice, he often adhered to traditional metrics and verse forms unlike most his contemporaries. In his poem "The Rose Family", construction is consistent while thought structure is infused with quiet wit.
In "The Rose Family", Frost uses literal examples to derive meaning from a perhaps abstract thought. The poem contemplates the philosophical essence of a rose logically by establishing truth that a rose is a rose and that it always was one to begin with, inquisitively inducts that other fruits are perhaps equal to roses, and deducts from both of these thoughts by stating "You, of course, are a rose". His thoughts are strictly denotative to the objects he describes, but to whom he refers to remains vague.
Purpose in "the Rose Family" is veiled and broadened by the poems simplistic approach in style. Very little information about the speaker and addressee can be derived from the poem thus concealing the purpose of the occasion beyond the potential to either charm or sarcastically belittle. Very little emotion is distinctive throughout the verse except a subtle curiosity and satire. The poet turns the purpose of the poem after he ironically contradicts his own logic. In the first two lines, he establishes that a rose is and always was. The next six lines he questions other's interpretation of a rose but then abruptly drops this logic to establish a curious new truth to the meaning of a rose. The redundant rhyme of the poem also adds a jeering, almost "king's jester" rhyme like rhythm. These abrupt, forced changes in thought and taunting rhyme promote a purpose to jest the poet's addressee.
The poem's significance is held by it's deceiving wit. The "safe" or even cliché theme of roses prepares the reader for a verse on beauty and love, but then goes on to undermine this mindset in the most subtle of ways. Simple language and seemingly cheery subject matter obscure the satirical nature of the poem.
Amanda from United States
Comment 19 of 20, added on June 21st, 2007 at 7:22 AM.
Robert Frost The Rose Family is twofold : a theory and practice. Whereas, in theory, a rose will remain always a rose and never stands for something else, practice brings a different story. In the figurative sense of the term, rose connotes everything symbolizing beauty (apple, pear, plum and you). I see that this is the implications make the most sense within that poem. Additionally, the images employed in the poem are very concrete, making us experience beauty revealed within The Rose Family vividly. Moreover, beauty employed in the poem calls for our mental pictures, visual images and physical sensations.
Hamid from Morocco
Comment 18 of 20, added on January 15th, 2007 at 4:24 PM.
this poem is sheerly about the overuse of anything in life and the detracted meaning that results
marissa is wrong.
jackie from Canada
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Comments
Here's a quick analysis I wrote for my AP U.S. poetry class on this poem:
Early American poet Robert Frost was known for using simple diction for complex themes and ironic thoughts. Although his poems were pithy and concise in word choice, he often adhered to traditional metrics and verse forms unlike most his contemporaries. In his poem "The Rose Family", construction is consistent while thought structure is infused with quiet wit.
In "The Rose Family", Frost uses literal examples to derive meaning from a perhaps abstract thought. The poem contemplates the philosophical essence of a rose logically by establishing truth that a rose is a rose and that it always was one to begin with, inquisitively inducts that other fruits are perhaps equal to roses, and deducts from both of these thoughts by stating "You, of course, are a rose". His thoughts are strictly denotative to the objects he describes, but to whom he refers to remains vague.
Purpose in "the Rose Family" is veiled and broadened by the poems simplistic approach in style. Very little information about the speaker and addressee can be derived from the poem thus concealing the purpose of the occasion beyond the potential to either charm or sarcastically belittle. Very little emotion is distinctive throughout the verse except a subtle curiosity and satire. The poet turns the purpose of the poem after he ironically contradicts his own logic. In the first two lines, he establishes that a rose is and always was. The next six lines he questions other's interpretation of a rose but then abruptly drops this logic to establish a curious new truth to the meaning of a rose. The redundant rhyme of the poem also adds a jeering, almost "king's jester" rhyme like rhythm. These abrupt, forced changes in thought and taunting rhyme promote a purpose to jest the poet's addressee.
The poem's significance is held by it's deceiving wit. The "safe" or even cliché theme of roses prepares the reader for a verse on beauty and love, but then goes on to undermine this mindset in the most subtle of ways. Simple language and seemingly cheery subject matter obscure the satirical nature of the poem.
Amanda from United States