ONE PERFECT ROSE

One perfect rose A single flow’r he sent me, since we met. All tenderly his messenger he chose; Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet— One perfect rose. I knew the language of the floweret; ‘My fragile leaves,’ it said, ‘his heart enclose.’ Love long has taken for his amulet

Try to find on your own some stylistic features used in the poem? How many speakers in the poem? And what cues helped you? When the poem is set? How do you know? What kind of vocabulary is used? Is it modern, archaic, formal or conversation? Can you identify a rhyme and scheme? Can you spot any marked or unusual features of grammar in the poem?

Single speaker who expresses emotional state and expresses that through a popular symbol of the rose. The vocabulary is Archaic.

3rd stanza Why is it no one ever sent me yet One perfect limousine, do you suppose? Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get One perfect rose.

The tone of the 3rd stanza is different from the discourse of a love poem. Although it does create a humorous play on that discourse form. The poet uses a style shift for a comic effect where the echoes of the lyric genre in stanza one and two give away in 3rd stanza to an altogether more prosaic style of language. The use of constructions like “Ah no”, “just my luck”, and “do you suppose” signals an informal register of discourse while in grammar. The subject is brought back to its more common 1st position in the clause “… no one ever sent me yet…”. The first two stanza are “literary language”, while the 3rd stanza was more contemporary idiom project. So, if you look at ‘floweret’ or ‘limousine’ which one of the two is a literary word? You would say ‘floweret’.

So, we look at words and how they function in a context rather than in isolation. The poet set up a twist in expectations that works for comic effect. Echoing other discourse in new context is an important way of generating irony. But here the echo only becomes clear when the shift in style is delivered in 3rd stanza. The poem is a good illustration, then, of how discourse is open to constant reinvigoration and transformation over time. Transdiscursivity do describe how the rules of discourse formation in one area became detached from it ulterior transformations in later development.

The poet used also some other stylistic feature.

A single flow'r he sent me, since we met. The speaker has received one flower from her man since they met. (For the record, "flow'r" just means that you should pronounce "flower" as one syllable, not two. So, instead of saying "flow-er," it should sound more like "flowr." We're wondering why the speaker mentions that it's just a "single" flower. It's almost like she's saying: "He's only given me 1 flower!

All tenderly his messenger he chose; The speaker very "tenderly," or lovingly, selected a messenger. The messenger is likely the "flower." Of course, it's not really an actual messenger. So this is a metaphor. So what message is the flower bringing? we can say that generally a flower is a messenger of love, affection, sympathy, and all that other good, mushy stuff.

Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet— One perfect rose. The speaker starts to get all poetic and all tender now. The flower she has received is "Deep-hearted, pure," and "wet" with dew. Still, what does it mean for a flower to be "deep-hearted"? Does it have a "heart" just like an artichoke does? Eh, no, not really.  Maybe because of red color, Or maybe the speaker is confusing the guy's heartfelt gesture with the rose itself? Also, the rose is wet with some kind of scented dew. She probably also has in mind both the beautiful odor of the rose and that earthy smell that plants sometimes emit. Rhyme ! In this stanza, the first and third lines rhyme, as do the second and fourth.

2nd stanza

I knew the language of the floweret; 'My fragile leaves,' it said, 'his heart enclose.' the flower can speak, and the speaker is able to understand flower language. To give an inanimate object, like a flower, a human quality, like speech, is to use personification.  The flower told her that her fragile leaves enclosed the man's heart. The flower is like a messenger that brings his heart, which is to say the flower is a kind of symbol or carrier of the man's feelings.  The heart, of course, is often associated with feelings. To be enclosed in "fragile" leaves, then, suggests that the sentiment that comes with the flower is delicate, or easy to break. A "floweret" is a little flower.

Love long has taken for his amulet One perfect rose. The speaker now tells us about the connection between love and flowers. Love has long used the perfect rose as his amulet. (An amulet is like a talisman, which is like a physical object that embodies a spiritual power. But why does love need to be protected from harm?  The speaker may be suggesting that people in love use flowers as a kind of defense. The rose is like an amulet in that it maintains the love and keeps it safe.

3rd Stanza

Why is it no one ever sent me yet One perfect limousine, do you suppose? The speaker seems frustrated and asks why nobody has ever sent her a perfect limousine. Does she ask this question because she's materialistic? But it also seems like the limousine is just a placeholder for something else. The speaker seems tired of love's clichéd gifts, and wants something new. She's essentially saying, "People in love always send flowers. Why can't they send something else, like a perfect limo?" Note to whom she's asking the question here. The phrase "do you suppose?" is directed right to us, the reader. As a result, a conversational tone emerges in the poem. We feel like the speaker is talking to us face to face.

Ah no, it's always just my luck to get One perfect rose. The speaker continues to seem pretty upset.  That "Ah no" strikes a note of serious disappointment. Note again the conversational tone. "Ah no" is something you'd say directly to someone, rather than write in a formal poem. She bemoans the fact that it's always "just [her] luck" to get one perfect rose.  She wants something new that will surprise her. There's nothing exciting about getting the same perfect rose every time you're in love, is there? Note that this stanza has the same rhythm and rhyme scheme of the previous two.   Well, this certainly isn't your typical flowery love poem now is it?