One Perfect Rose Essays - Literature, Poetic Form, Poetry

One Perfect Rose Dorothy Parker In the poem " One Perfect Rose " , Dorothy Parker misleads the reader throughout the first and second stanzas into believing this poem is a romantic tribute to a tender moment from her past through her word choice and s tyle of writing. However, the tone of the entire poem dramatically changes upon reading the third and final stanza when Parker allows the reader to understand her true intention of the poem, which is a sarcasm and mockery . Also , with this shift in the tone in the third stanza, there is a shift in the meaning of the entire poem, leading the reader to believe that the first two stanzas were not, in fact, sweet but instead a sarcastic and bitter account of this past moment. In the first stanza, Dorothy Parker uses specific words to create a double meaning. She uses words like " tenderly " , " pure " , and " perfect " to describe both the rose and its sender. The word s directly influence the reader's init ial reaction to the poem, as does the way in which she writes the poem. The stanza has four lines with every other line rhyming (ABAB format). It is short and sweet with a melodic quality in its reading. This musical quality definitely helps to lull the reade r into the belief that the poem' s intention is to come across as a romantic reco llection. However, in reading the poem through a second time, equipped with the knowledge of its true bitter notions, the reader sees what is purposely hidden but directly affects the overall tone. Parker mentions first and foremost the fact that this gen tleman sent her a single flowe r and ends the stanza with the phrase " one perfect rose " . There is a repetition here that at first thereader passes off as her noting the delicacy of the solitary flower. Upon reading the last stanza, it is realized that she is actually pointing out the fact that the only thing she received was one flower-that i s it. And, although there is a melodic quality to the rhythm to this poem, this rhythm accentuates the abruptness of her speech. She cuts lines off and speaks in short fragmented sentences. This, again, is something that is not noticed in the first read-through, but it does stand out after this initial reading. It almost seems as if Parker could not be bothered to spend too much time on the poem: it i s as if it was not worth the time or the effort. The second stanza is similar in content to the first. There are words Parker uses to deceive the reader at first- fragile, heart, love, and perfect. There are again four lines to the stanza with the odd and the even lines rhyming. And, of course, there are those words that the reader misses the first time reading it through. Her use of the word floweret is a perfect example of this. She cunningly makes a show of the fact that this is one, single flower by itself, but because the word rhymes with the word amulet two lines down, this mocking goes unnoticed. As does her the true meaning of the line Love long has taken for his amulet. Using this rose as the unknown gentleman s call sign at first seems cute. Superman has his S, this gentleman has his One perfect rose. The reader comes to realize that this symbol is not an honorable one. In the third and final stanza, Parker really shines the light on her true intention for this poem. She continues with the same format as the previous two stanzas, four lines with every other line rhyming and short, fragmented lines. However, her real feelings come out loud and clear in this stanza where they did not in the first two. She did not want that one, singe rose. Shewanted more, perhaps one perfect limousine. Here not only does she inform us what shewanted; she mocks what she did receive. Each line ends with the line " One perfect rose " , including the last stanza. And.