Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View
The speaker is likely H.D., but is technically unknown.
Form and Meter
No discernible rhyme scheme, form or meter. Four stanzas: two quatrains, one quintet, and one tercet.
Metaphors and Similes
Alliteration and Assonance
Irony
Genre
Imagist poetry
Setting
The ocean shore
Tone
admiring, rebellious
Protagonist and Antagonist
Major Conflict
The literal conflict is the fight for survival on the part of the sea rose, which is subject to damage from the elements. The metaphorical conflict suggested by H.D., is the way in which the speaker goes against cultural norms and expectations to admire and value the sea rose above the traditional rose. She respects the sea rose, a symbol of the female, because of its grit, experience, and strength. This contrarian position is a rebellion against misogynistic expectations of beauty, perfection, and purity that women have been pressured to emulate for thousands of years.
Climax
The climax is contained within the final lines of the poem. The speaker's question hints that the sea rose contains more value, complexity, and character than a traditional rose that has been dried and pressed: "Can the spice-rose / drip such acrid fragrance / hardened in a leaf?"
Foreshadowing
The climax of the final lines is anticipated by the speaker's earlier assertion that the sea rose is "more precious" than the traditional rose.
Understatement
Allusions
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Personification
One could argue that by addressing the sea rose directly, the speaker has personified it—further implicating the sea rose as a symbol of the female subject.
