love : pleasure or pressure?

Erica Mann Jong’s writing on literary text is categorized as marginalized literature for feminist writings .The rose in the poem written by her symbolizes love, pleasure, beauty. The persona received the love from a man but she was waiting to let the love bloom in her heart. By the time the love flows into her heart, she realizes the man’s love for her is beginning to fade. So, the persona tried to preserve the love she received from him but it perished as time moves on. She suffered the lost for years with pressure. She hopes for pleasure from the love she once received, so she took the effort to make it alive, but love was not lasting for her, turning from pleasure into pressure. In the last 2 stanzas I feel that the persona has reached to a reflecting and contemplating stage,in order to console herself, after going through bitterness of a love that has perished.

The Rose by Erica Mann Jong

You gave me a rose
last time we met.

I told myself
if it bloomed
our love would bloom,
& if it died--

O I did not

consider

the possibility.

It died.

Though I cut
the stem
on a slant
as my mother
taught me,
though I dropped
an aspirin
in the water,

it hung its head
like a spent cock
& died.

It stands
on my desk now--
straight green stalk,
blood-red clot
of bud
drooping
like a hanged man's
head.

Does this mean
we are doomed?
Does this mean
all lovers
are doomed?

O my love--
I have not read roses
as amulets
in seven years. . . .

Which doom
is worse?
To love
& lose?

Or to lose
love
altogether
& not care
whether roses

live or die?

unrequited love?

Offering

I came to you at sunrise

With silvery dew on sleeping lotus

Sparkling in my gay hands;

You put my flowers in the sun.

I danced to you at midday

With bright raintree blooms

Flaming in my ardent arms;

You dropped my blossoms in the pond.

I crept to you at sunset

With pale lilac orchids

Trembling on my uncertain lips;

You shredded my petals in the sand.

I strode to you at midnight

With gravel hard and cold

Clenched in my bitter fists;

You offered me your hybrid orchids

And I crushed them in my despair.

Hilary Tham who wrote the poem “Offfering” was born in Arlington, Virginia, grew up in Malaysia but died in Arlington. “Offerings” is one of her poems with the theme of relationship which can be considered as a good and suitable literary text for Malaysian secondary school students. Her poems are profound and realistic as they reflect the reality of life, touching the human factors that create deep insight.

In the poem I assume that “I” is a man while “you” is a woman. The flow of words from the first stanza until the last stanza creates an atmosphere of tense, desperation and passion of a man who is trying to win the heart of a woman whom he loves dearly. The different settings and flowers used in each stanzas reflects the persona’s determination despite the cold response from the woman whom he is in love with. His gestures in each stanza demonstrate his intense passion towards the woman.

I feel that the last stanza is truly arousing sympathy as it reflects an unrequited love. The midnight, gravel hard and cold creates the images of frustration as he clenched his fists in misery. In the following line, the woman offered him hybrid orchids which reflect the differences between the man and woman which might be the statues or level of knowledge. The most heart-breaking moments are when the man crushed the hybrid orchids as though he is crushing his dreams when he realized his love was an unrequited love.