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Analysis of There Is a Garden in Her Face

教学单位 外国语学院__ _ ____ __

姓 名 _李 莎 _______

学 号 _201220342 _______ __

专 业 _外国语言学及应用语言学

4

Analysis of There Is a Garden in Her Face
Thomas Campion
There is a garden in her face
Where roses and white lilies grow;
A heavenly paradise is that place
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow.
There cherries grow which none may buy,
Till "Cherry ripe" themselves do cry.
Those cherries fairly do enclose
Of orient pearl a double row,
Which when her lovely laughter shows,
They look like rose-buds filled with snow;
Yet them nor peer nor prince can buy,
Till "Cherry ripe" themselves do cry.
Her eyes like angels watch them still,
Her brows like bended bows do stand,
Threatening with piercing frowns to kill
All that attempt with eye or hand
Those sacred cherries to come nigh,
Till "Cherry ripe" themselves do cry.
There Is a Garden in Her Face is a lyric poem with three six-line stanzas. It was written by Thomas Campion who was a poet of 17th century. This poem was published in 1617 in a collection entitled The Third and Fourth Book of Ayres. I chose this poem due to its special title. It’s an accepted truism that garden is a place where covers a large piece of ground and many plants and flowers are planted there. Therefore, “a Garden in a lady’s face” must be interesting. Actually, after reading it, I really was impressed. Next, this poem will be analyzed from three aspects. Its rhyme scheme, main content and theme will be discussed.
First, the rhyme scheme of the poem is ababcc, as in the first stanza: “There is a garden in her face, Where roses and white lilies grow; A heavenly paradise is that place, Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow. There cherries grow which none may buy, Till "Cherry-ripe themselves do cry.” And the meter of the poem is iambic tetrameter, as in the first two lines of the second stanza: “Those che / rries fair / ly do / enclose, Of o / rient pearl / a dou / ble row”. But, the third line in the first stanza which is iambic pentameter is an exception.
Second, Campion used kinds of figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, allusion, and alliteration and so on. In fact, he relies mainly on metaphors and similes. The speaker used metaphors to compare the young lady’s face to a garden, her cheeks to roses, her skin to white lilies, her lips to cherries, her teeth to pearls, her frowns to arrows and so like. Besides metaphors, similes are also used many times. For instance, the speaker compared her lips and teeth to “rose-buds fill’d with snow”, her eyes to angels, and her brows to “bended bows do stand” which mean the bent bows of archers. By using metaphors and similes, a very beautiful and pure young lady appears before readers. In addition, the use of allusion is very typical as well, especially, the image of “garden”. As we all know, from ancient times to the present, there are many poems on love. Robert Burns wrote: “O, my love is like a red, red rose”. And George Gordon Byron depicted a beautiful woman in She Walks in Beauty like this: “She walks in beauty, like the night, of cloudless climes and starry skies”. Although there are so many poems of this kind, comparing a lady’s face to a garden is infrequent. In reality, this image can be found in the Bible and Spensor’s Amoretti The author not only compared this lady’s face to a garden, but also described it as “a heavenly paradise”. This reminds readers’ imagination of Eden in the Genesis of the Bible. And in the Bible, the image of garden can also be found in the Song of Solomon, for instance, “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse”. What’s more, the famous poet, Spensor also used such an image in his Amoretti. He wrote: “Coming to kiss her lips---such grace I found---Me seemed I smelled a garden of sweet flowers”. The author cleverly applied this image to his poem, which makes the title novel and attracts readers’ attention. Also, the usage of this figure of speech adds abundant information to the content.
After analyzing the first two aspects, then the content and the theme of this poem will be discussed more completely because of its significance. The speaker said that the face of a young lady is like a garden. Her skin is like white lilies, and cheeks are like roses. And her lips that enclose a double row of pearls (her teeth) are cherry red. However, such a beautiful woman can’t be kissed. Because there are angels with arrows that guard her lips, no man may kiss her until she says “cherry- Ripe”. Actually, these are not the real aims to which the poet wanted to reach. Beyond those facial descriptions, there are more meaningful things. To know these, moving to its theme is necessary. Firstly, there is a symbol of forbidden in this poem. The poet described the lady as a divine creature which is underscored by the references to heaven. For this point, readers can read it for three times: “A heavenly paradise; Her eyes like angels; Those sacred cherries”. These are similar to those of the Garden of Eden that no one may touch or even look at. This young lady’s lips are like the forbidden fruits that can’t be eaten. If someone kisses the lips, he will be pierced by the angel’s arrows, which is like the consequence of eating the forbidden fruits. Since everyone knows that Adam and Eve were driven out of the Eden due to eating forbidden fruit, no man dares to or even touch the lady without her permission. Second, waiting for Mr. Right is also a theme of this poem. The last two lines say that the lady can be approached till she cries “Cherry-Ripe”, which is her permission. Here the poet made a sharp contrast between the last two lines and the former lines. Being different from the lady’s coldness, these two lines gave readers a happy and cheerful woman. In a word, only when she meets a man who please her, perhaps her future husband, will she say “Cherry-Ripe”. Last, the image of the lady is too perfect to find in daily life. The speaker speaks of her as if she is like a god. It seems that no man can match her beauty. But, in our daily life, it’s rather difficult and even impossible to find such a beautiful lady. Perhaps, the woman cannot be as perfect as the speaker makes her out to be. Maybe the poet just wants to give readers a sense of falseness and makes us believe that he is just dreaming of such a woman.
To make a conclusion, by analyzing, we see a beautiful but cold young lady who is unapproachable without her permission. In my opinion, this not only implies that true love needs waiting but also can be applied to other aspects of life. For example, when we want to accomplish one thing successfully and perfectly, we need to wait for the proper time besides careful plan and preparation.

Reference:
陈才宇. 英美诗歌名篇选读[M]. 杭州：浙江大学出版社，2007.