Department of English
Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
"My
Pretty Rose Tree"
(1794)
William Blake
(November 28, 1757 – August 12, 1827)
A flower was
offered to me; Such a flower as May never bore But I said I've a Pretty Rose-tree: And I passed the sweet flower o'er. Then I went to my Pretty rose-tree; To tend her by day and by night. But my Rose turnd away with jealousy: And her thorns were my only delight. |
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"My Pretty Rose Tree" Notes
This poem is in the Songs of Experience section of Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (1789).
4 passed...o'er: passed over
7 jealousy:
8 delight:
Blake's Poem | Prose Paraphrase | Some Interpretation | Comments |
A flower was offered to me; |
A flower was offered to me. The month of May has
never produced a flower like this. |
A flower was offered to me. A beautiful flower like
this the month of May, the height of spring, has never
created. |
How important is the inversion in the original? Does
May replacing the flower affect the focus of the lines? What kind of flower is this that does not bloom naturally in spring? |
But I said I've a Pretty Rose-tree: And I passed the sweet flower o'er. |
But I said that I have a pretty rose tree, and I did
not accept the sweet flower. |
But I said that I have a pretty rose tree, and I did
not consider taking the sweet flower. |
How important is the conjunction "and"? How does
reading it as "so" alter Blake's text? |
Then I went to my Pretty Rose-tree; To tend her by day and by night. |
Then I went to my pretty rose tree to tend her during the day and at night. | Then I went back to my pretty rose tree to take care of her day and night. | How significant is the possessive? How significant is the gendered pronoun? |
But my Rose turnd away with jealousy: And her thorns were my only delight. |
But my rose turned away with jealousy and her thorns
were my only enjoyment. |
But my rose, out of jealousy, did not bloom and I can
only enjoy her thorns. |
How important is the transition from "Rose-tree" to
"Rose" in these last lines? What resonance does the possessive "my" have at the end? What sense does each "my" have? Are they the same? |
"Language is the house of Being," according to Heidegger's famous figure (see Steiner 127) but for Blake, as for Wordsworth, that structure becomes for most a prison-house maintained by "pre-established codes," by cliché and convention. The warden of the prison-house, the fashioner of "mind-forgd manacles," the force that has barred us from the play of Being in language, as from the stunning energy of true poetry, can be seen as "the bard." The fallacy in crediting such assumed authority looms in the "Introduction" to Songs of Experience, where, by the eighth line, three distinct subjects "might controll / The starry pole." With its echoes of Jeremiah ("O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord") and the God of Paradise Lost ("past, present, future he beholds"), the bard seems to command reverence—but as in other cases, on inspection, the compelling language breaks into mumbo jumbo, etched on a plate whose vista of stars is graphically barred by the cloud of words. Students of the Bible, and of Wesley's great hymn, "Wrestling Jacob," will recognize that it is the opportunity to struggle for blessing or interpretation from a sacred messenger that is given "till the break of day." The religious references resonate with the particularly eighteenth-century, evangelical sense of "experience" as the inner history of one's religious emotion (see OED, s.v., 4b)—indeed, "hymn of experience" appears throughout accounts of Methodism.
--Nelson Hilton, "William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience," The Blackwell Companion to Romanticism, ed. Duncan Wu (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998)
"Introduction," Songs
of Experience (1789)
Hear the voice of the Bard!
Who Present, Past, & Future sees Whose ears have heard, The Holy Word, That walk'd among the ancient trees. Calling the lapsed Soul And weeping in the evening dew: That might controll, The starry pole; And fallen fallen light renew! O Earth O Earth return! Arise from out the dewy grass; Night is worn, And the morn Rises from the slumberous mass. Turn away no more: Why wilt thou turn away The starry floor The watry shore Is giv'n thee till the break of day. |
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This persona is not Blake. cf. Genesis 3:8 cf. Jeremiah 22:29 |
Study Questions
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Sample Student Responses to William Blake's "My Pretty Rose Tree"
Response 1:
Study Question:
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Reference
Blake, William. The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake. Edited by David V. Erdman, Anchor, 1988.
Mitchell, W. J. T. Blake's Composite Art: A Study of the Illuminated Poetry. Princeton UP, 1978.
Further Reading
Keynes, Geoffrey. Drawings of William Blake: 92 Pencil Studies. Dover, 1970.
Lister, Raymond. The Paintings of William Blake. Cambridge UP, 1986.
Last updated August 17, 2020