Story of a Girl

Odes of Passion (page 172)

"And Hope enchanted smil’d, and wav’d her golden hair;

And longer had she sung-but with a frown,

Revenge impatient rose…’"

It’s only three lines, three small lines, but those three lines describe so much about that girl, the one girl who is gorgeous beyond simple world but carries on too much in the world. As I read it, that was the pressing thought in my mind. I seem to have a pressing thought for every text that we read (which I suppose is the main point of doing these readings in the first place). It also reminded me of the song “Story of a Girl” because that is the entirety of the song, it is a story of a girl who cried a river and drowned the whole world, but while she looked so sad in photographs, I absolutely loved her, when she smiled (and I digress). Seriously, you all should listen to the song if you haven’t already. That is the song of my childhood.

At first glance, this poem evidently is meant to show something about the female main character Adeline. That seems simple enough, and the ode itself does present that. Standing by itself, I would have just assumed that it was meant for any normal girl because for every girl, and every person for that matter, has been through something that makes them a rose stuck in a bushel of thorns. Put before the chapter however, the “Ode to the Passions” leads the reader into this belief that its placement is obviously of some significance. Similar to a post that I read before, the ode acts as the music before a battle or love scene in a musical or movie before it leads into the actual actions, focusing the audience on that raw emotion to help intertwine them with the story and the characters. It is meant to draw attention to Adeline and her beauty that took Theodore’s heart, which is exactly what the following two paragraphs tell of. It describes the encounters that Theodore had with Adeline and his thoughts on her, how her presence had touched it along with his remembrance of another poem that too describes beauty.

“Oh! Have you seen, bath’d in the morning dew,

The budding rose its infant bloom display;

When first its virgin tints unfold to view,

It shrinks and scarely trusts the blaze of day?

SO soft, so delicate, so sweet she came,

Youth’s damask glow just dawning on her cheek.

I gaz’d, I sigh’d, I caught the tender flame,

Felt the fond pang, and droop’d with passion weak.”

The different poems both resemble each other in that regards, showing painted words of beauty and comparing the girl to a sweet rose. The third paragraph following the second poem though, continues on the second part of the ode, telling why Adeline was “but with a frown, revenge impatient rose” because it is here that Theodore realizes about how Adeline has been hurt, how this entire situation had marred her, leaving her but a delicate rose on the outside and a very impatient, hurt, and scarred by thorns of circumstances. True the second poem serves to amplify Theodore’s initial view on Adeline and her beauty; however, the ode shows us more than her superficial characteristics. It shows us the state of her heart. What stuck out to me even more is that the chapters coordinate with the three lines of the ode, first of her beauty, then of her unrest, and lastly of her brokenness.