Analysis Rudyard Kipling’s Blue Roses

By using Objective and Mimetic Approaches

By : Irda Amalia
NIM : 1711230018

A. Historical Background
Biography of Rudyard Kipling
Born :30 December 1865 Bombay, India
Death :18 January 1936 (aged 70) London, England
Cause of death :He suffered a haemorrhagein his small intestine
Occupation :Short-story writer, novelist, poet, journalist
Alma mater :United Services Colledge
Literary movement :
1. History Fact
This poem published in 1891 in Victorian England era. During his time in India,
Kipling wrote a number of stories about relations between men and woman. This
poem written when kipling was only twenty one, and working as ajournalist in India,
tells of a misunderstood young man one must surely assume his youth. His lady love
insists that he must bring her blue roses. He quarters the world on this impossible
quest, and returns empty-handed to find that she has died. It had been a “silly love”.
So everything is in vain and his love remains a dream and does not become a dream
This also ties into Rudyard’s Childhood because he never anyone be loyal to him
Loyalty was one of the thing that Rudyard wished he had, so he wrote about it.
Rudyard Kipling was six years old and his litle sister was three years old, In 1871,
however, his parents sent him and his sister Beatrice called "Trix" to England, partly
to avoid health problems, but also so that the children could begin their schooling.
Kipling and his sister were placed with the widow of an old Navy captain named
Holloway at a boarding house called Lorne Lodge in Southsea, a suburb of
Portsmouth. Kipling and Trix spent the better part of the next six years in that place,
which they came to call the "House of Desolation” because they was bullied as well as
physically mistreated, and the experience left with dept psychological scars and a
sense of betrayal. His parents left to India leaving their children in Foster care.

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 2. Social Condition
This poem include in a victorian era that was the period of Queen Victoria’s
reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 january 1901. This era was marked by
a long period of peace, prosperity, the glory of Britanianon the international scene,
and the high national confidence of britons. Ideologically, the victorian era witnessed
resistance to the rationalism that defined the Gorgian period and an increasing turn
towards romanticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. This era forms a
link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different
literature of the 20th century. The 19th century is often regarded as a high point in
British literature as well as in other contries such as France, the United States and
Russia. Books, and novel in particular, became ubiquitous, and the “Victorian
novelist” created a legacy of work with continuing appeal form, along with ahort
stories and poetry, in such as literary magazines as Household Words.1
3. Moment of Creating Poetry
This poem’s inspiration was his failed relationship with Florence Garrard. In
1880, at the age fourteen, Kipling had encountered “Flo Garrard” a beautiful girl of
fifteen whom he had first met when he was being fostered with his sister in Southsea
and fallen passionately in love with her. Though she seems to have remained
indifferent to him, he wrote a number of poem for and about Flo over the next two
years, and when he left for India in October 1882 to work as a reporter, he have
continued to write to her from Lahore, but after two years Flo leaving Kipling who
devastated as he had considered himself engaged to her, then after his return to
England, encountered Flo Garrard by chance in London and visited her in Paris in
May, he attempted to reignite their relationship but her feelings had not changed,
leaving him in a state of considerable emotional turtomoil. Until some time before
July 1884 she evidently wrote to break off any understanding they might have had. It
is not known what transpired between them except that he would never see Garrard
again. It seemed that he could not give her what she wanted. Thus when : Blue Roses”
was written he must have had his own personal experiencein mind.

1
The Universuty Of Adelaide. Woman Novelist Of Queen Victoria’s Reign: A Book Of Appreciation.
E-Book@Adelaide. 2015.

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 B. Objective Approach
Objective theory is the most recent classifiation, which focus on an analysis of the
text in isolation.2 Though extremely rare in pre twentyth century history, this fourth
alternative to view the next in isolation has been the dominant mode for criticism for at
least half of the twentyth century proponents of this theory trace it is origins to central
sections of Aristotle’s poetics, where tragedy is regarded as an object in itself, and where
the works internal elements.

Based on the theory above to analyzing intrinsic aspects of literary works the
writer use of norm stratum technique must cover: Analysis of sound, meaning,
contemplation. In this part they will be explained in detail as follow:
Blue Roses
Rudyard Kipling

Roses red and roses white

Plucked I for my love’s delight.
She would none of all my posies--
Bade me gather her blue roses

Half the world I wandered through,

Seeking where such flower grew.
Half the world unto my quest
Answer me with laugh and jest.

Home I came at wintertide,

But my silly love had died
Seeking with her latest breath
Roses from the arms of Death.

It may be beyond the grave

She shall find what she would have.
Mine was but an idle quest--
Roses white and red are best!
1. Anysis of Sounds
a. Ryme
Rhyme is one or two more words that have the same sound or echo with
each other3. So a rhyme is when two words sound the same when spoken,
usually their position at the end of the line. So from the both of statements in

2
M. H. Abrams. The Mirror And The Lamp Romantic Theory And Critical Tradition. London Oxport
University Press. 1953. Page: 26-29
3
Christina, Myers-Shaffer, Barron's SAT Subject Test in Literature, Library Of
CongressCataloging, United State Of America, 2009, P. 83.

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 above I can conclude that rhyme is repetition of sounds that occur in two or
more words at the ends of lines of poetry in order to add to the impression of the
beauty of poetry to the reader.
First Stanza
Roses red and roses white
Plucked i for my love’s delight.
She would none of all my posies--
Bade me gather her blue roses
The firs line of ends in the word ‘white’, and the second line ends in the
word ‘delight’. Because the two words rhyme, they both are given the letter
‘A’‘A’ signifies that we have found the first rhyme in the poem. The third line
ends in the word ‘posies’ and the fourth line ends in ‘roses’. These two words
don’t rhyme with the first two word, they get the letter ‘B’‘B’. So the rhyme is
AABB.
Second Stanza
Half the world I wandered through,
Seeking where such flower grew.
Half the world unto my quest
Answer me with laugh and jest.
The second stanza of Blue Roses poem has same rhyme AABB. We can
look at the end word in the first line ‘through’ and the second line end in the
word ‘grew’, they both are givent letter ‘A’‘A’. For the third and fourth line in
the words ‘quest’ and ‘jest’, these two word get the letter ‘B’‘B’, then the ryme
of the second stanza are AABB.
b. Alliteration
Alliteration use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words
that are close together, as in ‘He buit a big boat.’4 Alliteration is the repetition of
usually initial consosnant sounds in two or more neigboring words or syllables.
To find alliteration we could see the consosnants are repeated at the baginning
of the word in first stanza poem of Rudyard Kipling’s Blue Roses:
“Roses red and roses white”
The words Roses, red and roses used consonan (r) at the beginning of words.

4
Oxford Dictionary Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary Fourth Edition. London: Oxford University
Press, 2008, P.11

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 c. Assonance
If a vowel is repeated instead (either at the beginning or in the middle of
words) it is called Assonance5. So assonance is a vowel sound that is repeated
at the beginning of a word or the middle of a word in a poem which aims to give
sonority in poetry. Assonance can be found atthe first line in second stanza:
“Bade me gather her blue roses”
According of words in above, gather and her have a same of sound. They used
vowel (e) in the middle of word.
2. Meaning

First Stanza
Red roses and white roses are interpreted as expressions that people usually use, thus
encouraging him to give something more to his love of blue roses to ensure that he is
loyal and willing to do anything for him, even though he knows that nothing like that

Second Stanza
He had traveled almost all of the world he explored was only to find a place where
the flower grew, but blue roses were not there and all the search efforts he did were
in vain, would remain his dream and not come true

C. Mimetic Approach
Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem when he was fourteen years old in the Victorian era. he
falls in love with a beautiful woman named Florence Garrard. he did many things to
make his lover happy even though it was an impossible thing like a blue rose, he did it to
show his lover's loyalty, but his love was unrequited. therefore he made this poem as a
parable of something he never had. besides that he also wanted to express his sadness in
childhood with his sister "Trix" left in an orphanage by their parents who returned to
India. Garrard Rudyard Kipling became one of the poets popular in the Victorian era
because art began to grow rapidly internationally. so kipling reflects real life by
combining bad times and love stories.

D. Conclution
A blue roses poem by Rudyard Kipling was written when he was twenty-one
years old in the Victorian era. In this poem he expressed his feelings about the limited
love of Miss Flo Garrard, he wanted to devote his loyalty to the woman he loved and do
everything to make the woman happy, but in the end his love was unrequited. On the

5
Mario Klarer, An Introduction to Literary Studies, London and New York: Routledge. 2004.

5
 objective approach this poem has AABB rhyme and consists of four stanzas and he uses
the word blue roses as a parable of something he hopes remains a dream. The purpose of
this poem is rather difficult to understand because Kipling uses parable words to convey
the meaning of this poem.

E. References
Christina, Myers-Shaffer, Barron's SAT Subject Test in Literature, Library Of Congress
Cataloging, United State Of America, 2009, P. 83.

M. H. Abrams. 1953. The Mirror And The Lamp Romantic Theory And Critical
Tradition. London Oxport University Press.

Mario Klarer. 2004. An Introduction to Literary Studies, London and New York:
Routledge

Oxford Dictionary Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary Fourth Edition. 2008. London:
Oxford University Press.

The Universuty Of Adelaide. 2015. Woman Novelist Of Queen Victoria’s Reign: A

Book Of Appreciation. E-Book@Adelaide.s