User:SandsJes/sandbox

Summary
A man is offered a rose far surpassing the beauty of an ordinary rose, but he turns it down because he already has a pretty rose tree. He then returns to his tree and tends to her every need both day and night, but she only turns away from him in jealousy and shows him the thorns of her own.

Threefold Vision of Love
According to Antal, Blake's Flower Plate is comprised of three flower poems on the same plate for a reason: to illustrate three types of love; Poetic Love, Earthly Love, and Human Love. In the "threefold vision of love" idea, this poem represents "Human Love". This is considered to be "Human Love" due to the possessiveness and temptation echoed throughout the poem.

Themes and Interpretations
This poem seems to echo that of a story of a married couple. The man is surrounded by beauty, and at least one beautiful woman, but he declines them all to return to his wife. He is very possessive with his constant use of the word "my", and thus "imprisons" his Rose Tree. She, however, turns away with jealousy and in turn only reveals her thorns to him. Johnson describes My Pretty Rose Tree as "...an ironic reconsideration of the emblem convention. Blake's speaker, having rejected the lovely flower offered him, tries to tend his pretty rose tree with all the single-minded ardor of a Petrarchan lover; but his devotion is a sickness nourished by his perverse or ironic 'delight' in the thorns of jealousy. His love object...both attracts and repels..." In this, the man in the poem is trying to show his love to his rose tree, but only seems to have the love unrequited, even though he treats the rose tree like royalty. This echoes the idea of "Human Love" as we often want things we can't have, and become infatuated with things, or idealizing them instead of actually loving them. The rose tree showing her thorns of jealousy only entices the man more, much like it would any other human. One theme continuously echoes through the minds of critics: Possessiveness.

Possessiveness
Antal states that "The man actually imprisons his partner who reacts accordingly - to ownership with distrust." Antal also goes further to mention the frequent use of the word "my" in the poem, especially when in reference to rose tree. The man lays claim over the rose tree, and though he tends to her every need, seems to get nothing but contempt and jealousy from her. Not only is the rose tree trapped underneath the possessiveness of the man, but another "trap" could be implied according to Antal with "The rose-tree, as a rose bush, hints at the possibility of childbearing." Durant furthers the point of possessiveness when he says, "The keyword is 'I've'. What he affirms is not that he is hers, but that she is his. He is not thinking of his responsibility to her, but of his rights over her, and of her obligations towards him." This interpretation makes it sound as if the man is expecting the woman to bear him children. In a time where women were considered men's property anyway, not only would the woman be possessed by her husband, but her children as well. If the rose tree, or rather the woman, fears that her husband is unfaithful to her, she wouldn't want to trap her children within that environment.

Summary
The Rose, which is a symbol of love and beauty, puts forth a flaw or a thorn. The humble sheep also calls to attention its horn or flaw. The Lilly, however, which is pure and white, enjoys love and has no thorn or flaw to show the world.

Threefold Vision of Love
According to Antal, Blake's Flower Plate is comprised of three flower poems on the same plate for a reason: to illustrate three types of love; Poetic Love, Earthly Love, and Human Love. The Lilly deals with the "Poetic Love" concept of this "threefold vision of love". This is considered the "Poetic Love" because the Lilly is innocent, and pure, and unable to be besmirched by love or by thorns. As Johsnon states, "Oddly enough, most emblem designs featuring lilies show the flower surrounded by thorns." Blake's Lilly has no thorns, or more specifically, no thorns. Unlike the sheep or the Rose, the Lilly is the purest of them all. This echoes poetic love as ideally, love should be flawless. Love should be perfect and everything that people dream of. Even though the two lovers themselves may have flaws, love itself shouldn't have any.

Themes and Interpretations
Though a rather short poem, and for that matter, the shortest poem on the page, The Lilly puts forth a great deal of symbolism and figurative language to be interpreted in numerous ways. Though there are many different interpretations out there, the experts seem to agree on two main themes for this poem. The two main themes within this poem are Purity and the Ideal Love.

Purity
Though Purity is often immediately compared with virginity, some critics argue that The Lilly maintains a rather different kind of purity. Johnson quotes, "The text and design of 'The Lilly' emblematize and celebrate a fresh conception of purity, the purity of gratified desire. To be unstained by thorns is to allow the 'stain' of personal contact, which is the only true whiteness." This purity is not virginity; rather, this purity is knowing what you want and never settling until you get what you desire. You don't alter your desires or ambition despite the circumstances, but keep true to what you truly desire. Instead of allowing the thorns of "personal contact" or attempts at intervention that third parties may have tried to force on her, the Lilly maintains her resolve and stays true to what she knows she desires. Antal captures this idea well when she says "The Lilly, is the most spiritual showing that 'however subject the natural body might be to force and threats, man's spiritual body, like the Lilly, could never be essentially debased'".

Ideal Love
The idea of Purity in the poem also trickles into the other theme of Ideal Love. The Ideal Love is often the purest form of love in that the love is pure because it is pure love; there is no game, or flaws to it. The Ideal Love is simply love, purely innocent and true love. Johnson states that "The Lilly who delights in love is another manifestation of the 'sweet flower' offered to the Rose lover in the first poem on his plate." Rather than denying perhaps the true, ideal love, as the man in My Pretty Rose Tree does, The Lilly vows to delight itself in a pure and true love not besmirched by duty, or any other thorn the rose may bear.