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American modern literature starts in the late 19th century and takes many different forms throughout the period, such as seen with impressionism and imagism. While the former is often based on impressions coming from different characters’ perspectives, the latter proposes an opposed vision to impressionism by using clear-cut natural images instead of abstractions. In his manifesto, “A Few Don’ts by the Imagiste,” Ezra Pound highlights what the imagist movement is by writing about what it is not. Similarly, Hilda ‘H.D.’ Doolittle’s poem “Sea Rose” uses opposed images of flowers—the sea rose and the spice-rose—to depict two types of women, who are respectively the New Woman and the Angel in the house. H.D.’s poem brings together many imagist elements highlighted by Pound in his manifesto, but also offers a larger commentary about women of the late 19th and early 20th century. Her poem acts as an ode to the liberated woman, who remains strong despite external agents that try to push her down.
In “A few Don’ts by an Imagiste,” Ezra Pound highlights what poets should avoid doing in order to fit the imagist criteria without clearly stating what these criteria are. The reader must therefore deduce by himself or herself what imagism really is. Similarly, H.D.’s “Sea Rose” is about two flowers that symbolize the new and the traditional woman, which is something the reader must deduce from descriptions. Hence, Pound’s criteria are key elements in the understanding of the piece because they follow the same structure and, also, because it allows one to associate imagism with Doolittle. Pound first claims that an image “is that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time” (130), which means that the poem forces one to use his or her intellect to understand the piece. There are also emotions associated with it. It is therefore a complex because the poem necessitates attention to be understood. Pound also insists on the use of “no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something” (131) as he claims that these are abstractions that take the reader away from what is concrete (131). Finally, the imagist poem does not need to be metered and there is no need for end rhymes (Pound 132). In other words, the music usually created through rhymes can be made with the use of assonance and alliteration. A rigid structure is not mandatory.
It is true that Doolittle uses many adjectives within her poem. One could claim that it does not follow Pound’s idea of the “concrete” (131). In other words, Pound claims that abstractions or adjectives dull “the image [which] comes from the writer’s not realizing that the natural object is always the adequate symbol” (131). What he means is that there is no need for adjectives when the image is already straightforward. In his manifesto, he gives the example of a “dim land of peace” (Pound 131). For him, the addition of the peaceful aspect to the land is useless, since the natural image itself is already adequate in that it carries the meaning of the peacefulness. Hence, Doolittle’s overuse of adjectives can be considered as shifting away from imagism.
Nevertheless, her adjectives are still valuable, since they emphasize a binary about two flowers, the sea rose and the spice-rose. In the first line, H.D. repeats the word “rose” (Pound 1) twice, which seems to be a useless repetition. However, following the logical structure of a grammatically well-constructed sentence, the first “rose” (Pound 1) is used as an adjective, whereas the second “rose” (Pound 1) is used as a noun. The flower that is the rose is therefore pink. The addition of the colour makes it clear for the reader that she is writing about the sea rose, and not of the spice-rose that comes later in the poem. In other words, one can understand from the adjective that the sea rose is the principal element of the poem and not the spice-rose, which is of a paler colour (“spice” para.1). Thus, the adjective highlights the main focus of the writer. This creates a contrast with the spice-rose and sets up the notion of binary between two flowers.
The other adjectives she uses within the first stanza connote fragility and strength. These adjectives emphasize the binary within the sea rose itself. Indeed, Doolittle’s rose is “marred” (2), “meagre” (3), and “thin” (3). If it is marred, it suggests that it is damaged. If it is thin and meagre, the rose does not get all the nutrients it needs to be strong. This suggests that the flower is affected negatively by an environment that is unfavourable for its growth. Hence, it is rather negative for the flower which is weakened by outside agents. However, because H.D. puts the emphasis on the adjective “harsh” (1) in the first line by writing it alongside the noun “rose” (1), she counterbalances the fragility with strength. In essence, what one first notices when reading the poem is the toughness and strength of the flower and not its weakness. H.D.’s use of adjectives is consequently not superfluous in the first stanza as she shows the frailty, but, most importantly, the richness of the flower. The second and third stanza continue in the same vein. When H.D. writes that the flower is “precious” (5), it suggests that it has a great value despite its fragility; it needs to be preserved. Yet, in the third stanza, she uses words such as “stunted” and “small” (Doolittle 8). Again, Doolittle clearly pictures the rose as not fully developed. The poet focuses on keeping the dichotomy of weakness and strength associated with the rose.
Additionally, she uses the passive voice in the second and third stanza. The use of passive structures is significant, since it places the flower in the position of the victim, an image the poet wants to convey. For example, she writes that the flower is “caught in the drift” (Doolittle 8), “flung on the sand” (Doolittle 10), and “lifted” (Doolittle 10). The use of the passive instead of the active voice shows that the flower has no agency. It suffers from the effects of the environment. The effects of the sand are particularly highlighted, since Doolittle refers to a “crisp sand” (1), suggesting that it is sharp. Since the rose is flung on this element, the sand can be damaging to the delicate flower. One can consequently claim that H.D.’s use of the passive voice keeps the binary in place. Not only is she creating a dichotomy within the sea rose as a flower that is strong and weak, but also between the sea rose as the victim and the sand as the persecutor.
In the same order of ideas, H.D. creates a rhythm and conveys her message by mixing assonances, alliterations, fricatives, and stops, which is part of imagism. There are many /s/ and /z/ sounds in the poem, which are also called fricatives. For example, Doolittle writes “stint” (2), “sparse” (4), “single” (7), “stem” (7), and “stunted” (9). These words are all alliterations, because of the repetition of the same sound at the beginning (“Alliteration” para. 1). The word “rose” (Doolittle 1) “precious” (Doolittle 5), and “fragrance” (Doolittle 15) also contain the /s/ and /z/ sound. The fricatives not only create music, but also gives a sweetness to the flower, while emphasizing its delicacy. Indeed, the fricatives are rather soft sounds. On the other hand, H.D. uses stops when she writes about the effect of the environment on the flower. Indeed, the words “crisp” (Doolittle 12) and “caught” (Doolittle 8) are /k/ sounds, which are harder than the fricatives. She also uses assonances, which is the repetition of the same internal vowel sounds, such as when H.D. writes “lifted” (11), “crisp” (12), and “drift” (8) (“Assonance” para. 1). Doolittle consequently plays with sounds. This creates music and emphasizes the image of the rose that has to face obstacles. The stops suggest aggressiveness, whereas the fricatives emphasize the flower’s delicacy.
The binary between two flowers is finally rendered clear in the last stanza, when H.D. writes about a spice-rose. One knows that the spice-rose is not the sea rose, since H.D. asks the questions whether the former can “drip such acrid fragrance hardened in a leaf?” (15), which insinuates that the latter possesses the strong fragrance. The word “such” (Doolittle 15) implies to the reader the idea of a comparison between the two flowers. In other words, Doolittle is asking if the spice-rose has the capacity to liberate the same fragrance as the sea rose. Since Doolittle spends the entire poem noticing the hardship of the sea rose despite the hard conditions it is a victim of, one can claim that the sea rose, indeed, has the acrid fragrance, whereas the spice-rose does not. Hence, it suggests that the sea rose is more valuable than the spice-rose.
Politically speaking, H.D.’s poem is not just about a sea rose and a spice-rose. As mentioned previously, there is an underlying message within the poem that is carried through the images. When Pound explains what imagism is not, he also indirectly points out to what the movement actually is. H.D. does the same. She writes about a flower, while indirectly meaning something else. Here, the flower can be associated with the female figure. As explained by Wheeler, the flower is the “emblem of poetic and feminine beauty” (496). By extension, the two roses described within the poem can represent women as they are directly linked to femininity. Moreover, nature is often feminized in literature when one refers to mother nature, for example. Hence, here a clear link can be drawn between the image of the flowers and women.
If Doolittle’s flowers represent women, one can wonder what kind of women the sea rose and the spice-rose represent. There is one difference that is obvious between the two flowers. The sea rose grows in wilderness surrounded by wind, sand, and other elements that make it fragile, whereas the spice-rose is most commonly found around houses (“spice” para. 2). The binary can consequently be between a wild flower and a garden flower, or between a liberated woman and a domestic woman. In the 19th century and at the time Doolittle was writing her poem, the English term used for describing the feminine figure who tried to emancipate herself was the New Woman. As explained by Bell, this New Woman was trying to get away from “the public and domestic disabilities with which patriarchal systems had always burdened [her], and [her] struggle to claim, eventually, all the civil and political rights enjoyed by men” (80). In other words, the New Woman was one who tried to gain agency notably by going to work instead of staying in the house and taking care of the chores and children. She was a character who rejected patriarchal systems such as the marriage (Bell 89). These New Women were criticized in the 19th and 20th century, since they were seen as “signs of degeneracy” (Bell 90) as opposed to the traditional woman, who represented the Angel in the house or the example to follow. In that vein, it is not hard to associate H.D.’s wild sea rose to the New Woman and the spice-rose to the domestic woman, because of the environment in which they grow and because of their depiction.
In sum, Doolittle’s poem focuses on creating a binary between a sea rose and a spice-rose. The poet creates this dichotomy through her use of adjectives and passive voice. She also renders her poem imagist by her use of rhythm. At the end of the day, Doolittle follows Pound’s idea of the intellectual and emotional complex, since she creates an intellectual and emotional exercise that forces the reader to understand a complex link between flowers and women. In essence, since Doolittle’s poem is titled “Sea Rose,” and since the author focuses on highlighting the preciousness of that flower which is only a victim of its environment, one can conclude that the poem acts as an ode to the wild woman. The spice-rose is associated to the woman who follows the societal expectations, stays at home and, consequently, remains protected by the forces of the environment, since she is in the shelter of the domestic sphere. On the other hand, the wild flower is not protected by its surroundings. It is affected by the sand and the wind, which can represent the forces that are opposed to women who turn their backs to societal expectations. The sand and the wind can be extensions of the sources of opposition to changes, such as men, religion, and other women. Yet, the sea rose is still depicted as strong despite its fragility. The strength that is conveyed through the images shows Doolittle’s respect for the wild woman.
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