FREE ESSAY ON POEM SOLACE BY DOROTHY PARKER

POEM SOLACE BY DOROTHY PARKER

What can be more beautiful than love? More delightful to the ears than a bird chirping
it's melodious song of happiness on a Sunday morning? More heart melting than a single
rose given to you by the one you adore? To be able to live and to see such beauty in life
is a wonderful blessing. However, not many of us are bestowed with this gift. The
majority of people are too busy or too consumed with the superficialities of life that
they fail to take part in the splendor that is right in front of them. Whether it is
intentional or not we are desecrating the world around us. It is a crime to be so
incredibly unappreciative and unaware of the sacredness of God's creations. The poem
Solace, written by Dorothy Parker reflects the world's apathetic attitude towards the
desecration and destruction of the sacredness of all living things. 
The poem begins "There was a rose that faded young/ I saw it's shattered beauty hung/
upon a broken stem" (1-3). This rose which was once fragrant and rich with a crimson red,
has "faded young" and hangs wilted, pale, and ugly, upon a broken stem. The rose
transforms from a symbol of beauty to one of death and decay. Sadly, all but one person
notices this single fallen rose: he alone appreciates the beauty of every living thing.
While he is left mourning for this rose, we find that the majority of people could care
less. "What need to care/ with roses budding everywhere?" says the crowd (4-5). It's
obvious that the majority cannot appreciate the beauty that this rose once provided. If
we truly believe that everything on his world is sacred, than how can we feel no
condolences for a fallen beauty? Or how about a hundred fallen beauties? 
How many fallen roses, trees and plants does it take to realize our apathy and failure to
pay the proper respect to the living things around us?
We are currently witnessing one of the greatest desecration's on Earth, yet only a
handful of people live up to their duties as human beings and attempt to stop this
destruction. Everyday hundred's of acres are being annihilated in the rainforest.
Thousand's of exotic plants and trees are being wiped off the face of this Earth. We are
on a path to self-destruction. If we continue to remain indifferent to the desecrations
that scar our sacred planet, there will be not one rose left for the barren future that
waits. 
In the next stanza we find the same apathetic attitude reflected, only this time it 
is with animal life. "There was a bird brought down to die" (7). Again we find that
something beautiful has fallen to die; no longer will this bird chirp it's lovely song
nor trace the clouds in its flight. Yet only one person notices it's absence, while
everyone else say's " A hundred fill the sky/what reason to be sad?" (8-9). The same
apathetic attitude is reflected- people simply do not care for such "petty" things. For
if we did appreciate such beauty we would miss the bird and the pleasure it once gave us
while we watched it's glorious flight. In both stanzas Parker reveals the insensitivity
of the many and the love of the few.
All over the world animals are being overexploited for their body part. N Africa
elephants are being slaughtered for their tusks, in Asia tiger are being mutilated for
their bones and in the United States Alligators are being murdered for their skin. We
hear about these things everyday, but how many of us stop and think twice about a dead
animal 3,000 miles away? In the second stanza we find that only one person feels sadness
for the bird who has fallen from it's flight-this is true for our world today. We find
that only a few people hear the cries of these animals and mourn for their deaths. If
nature or animal cannot move us to appreciate such beauty, will love be able to spark
emotion? 
In the third stanza " there was a girl, whose lover fled" (10). It is a sad thing when
love is spoiled or when our lover cannot return the love we feel for them. A girl's
broken heart is all there is to show for the couple that was once delirious with joy and
happiness. Although, there is no greater shame than a love gone badly, we find that many
people feel no pity for what could've been a great good. "There's many another lad," they
say (12). We fail to recognize the sacredness of love; instead we focus on the next lad
to come. In the poem there is only one person who stops to sympathize and mourn for the
beautiful things that once filled the air with enticing sights, sounds, smells and in
this case, love. 
In every aspect of life we destroy and mutilate the sacredness of things, yet due to the
corrupted values, which blind our eyes, we could care less. Love has not escaped this
desecration which eats away at everything beautiful. Today divorce rates are as high as
fifty percent. People these days no longer respect the sacredness of love and it's vows.
It was only yesterday when divorce was unheard of. But who cares right?
It's often times sickening when you realize how apathetic our society has become. It's as
if apathy were a disease that cripples our ability to see the beauty and sacredness of
all things. Parker reflects this disease in her poem three times with three different
things: a rose, a bird and a love no more. Using repetition Parker pounds this message
into our heads. Even the title, Solace, plays an intricate role in her message. The
roses, the birds and love, are the very things we find solace in, however, because of our
apathetic and abusive attitudes these things are being taken advantage of. We all enjoy
the smell of roses and the lovesongs of birds, but what about the rainforests in South
America or the Elephants in Africa? If we continue to take these living things for
granted, slowly yet surely, there would be nothing left to bring us solace. Take a walk
outside, slow things down, and you too will notice the "rose that has faded young."