H.D., or Hilda Doolittle, was a literary leader of the Imagism movement. She is one of the more famous poets of the 1920's, and helped to shape the stylistic writing choices of the time period. H.D.'s poem "Sea Rose" identified and accentuated the style and technique used by Imagist writers.
H.D. uses concrete ideas and themes to maintain her abstract, feeling based poems. Imagists pair the concrete with images to create a sense of emotion, and in "Sea Rose" H.D. pairs the rose with love, which is very traditional. However, the way that the rose and love is used in the poem is very unique. H.D. talks about the harshness of love in her first line , "Rose, harsh rose". While one can still tie the abstract thought of love to the concrete rose, the meaning is warped and follows the Imagist trend of rejecting purely sentimental language. The poem then goes on to describe the marred nature of love, how it has been thrown about and mangled, how it stands alone without the protection of a strong stem. The stem in itself can also be connected to the abstract thought of protection, strength, and in essence holds the flower (love) together. The poem also describes a lack of leaves around the flower which can be paired with nurturing and protection. All three parts of the flower use Imagist techniques to pair abstract emotions and symbols with a concrete item.
Continuously the abstract ideas that H.D. gives her concrete items work in contradiction with one another. She talks about the harshness of the rose and it's tattered holdings, turning one of the most symbolic representations of love right around on it's head. The rose and the stem and the leaves all have contradictions which I find incredibly alluring. The poem was a real slap in the face to Romantic poets, whom had always uses roses as a symbol of pure love and affection.
