POETRY ANALYSIS

Nama Fadilah Lintuhaseng

Nim E02414102

Tugas Poetry Analysis

Asking for Roses - Poem by Robert Frost

A house that lacks, seemingly, mistress and master,
With doors that none but the wind ever closes,
Its floor all littered with glass and with plaster;
It stands in a garden of old-fashioned roses.

I pass by that way in the gloaming with Mary;
'I wonder,' I say, 'who the owner of those is.'
'Oh, no one you know,' she answers me airy,
'But one we must ask if we want any roses.'

So we must join hands in the dew coming coldly
There in the hush of the wood that reposes,
And turn and go up to the open door boldly,
And knock to the echoes as beggars for roses.

'Pray, are you within there, Mistress Who-were-you? '
'Tis Mary that speaks and our errand discloses.
'Pray, are you within there? Bestir you, bestir you!
'Tis summer again; there's two come for roses.

            This poem recounts a story about a young couple, a guy and a girl named Mary going through a forest who found an abandoned house with many roses in the yard.i think the speaker is Mary’s boyfriend who describes the environment around him the way he perceives it, while being out with his beloved girlfriend. He wants to pick up flowers but Mary stops him because they have to ask the owner for permission first. A ghost of the woman appears and tells them to take as many flowers before they wilt and hands some of them to him.

Imagery  

            Imagery is used everywhere for examples being “door that only wind closes”, “join hands”, “it’s summer again” “floor littered with glass” from broken windows and “plaster” It creates a mental image of an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere sometime in the summer.  They ask “like beggars for roses” thinking of themselves as inferior to the owner and when “she comes mistily shining” it creates an image of the owner as of a higher being. The use of imagery helps to put himself in place of the speaker.

Theme

            There is one theme of taking advantage of some good before it expires. The root of this is what the owner of the house says: “nothing is gained from not gathering roses”.

Rhyme

            The rhyme is ABAB with no other relation than the rhyme at the end. This carries over all six stanzas.The first stanza creates the mood by introducing the theme. The speaker describes exactly what he sees, an abandoned home. The second stanza tells half of the story, what is going on and what they want to do, followed by the third where the couple knocks on the door. The fourth stanza introduces voices or the ghosts talking inside the house, informing each other who is knocking on the door and that they want roses. In the fifth they grant them to pick roses and in the sixth one of the ghosts appears in shining light and gives them some roses herself.

Simile: as beggars for roses,

Metaphor: Garden of old fashioned roses, boon of roses,

Hiperbole: they are begging for roses,

Roses are a symbol of love.