Saturday, November 9, 2013

The Soul of the Rose

 
The Soul of the Rose ~ John William Waterhouse


Roses are best known and admired as ornamental plants grown for their flowers and scent.   They are part of the family of plants called Rosacea and science has now sequenced the genome of the Rose. That is, scientists now know the genes (sentences) that make up the beautiful plant (paragraph) called the pink rose in the chapter on Roses.
    Nevertheless, the importance of the rose is more than just its genetic structure (genome). It is the destiny of the rose that gives the Rose its importance to humankind.

    For whom is this pink rose? Which person will receive its fragrance? What hand will receive the flower?  It is this romantic mystery that make the rose important. This is the soul of the rose as depicted in the images below. 
   The future of science may allow us to create new species of the rose, but it will never be able to re-create the soul of the rose. Only the woman in this painting  by John William Waterhouse  (inspired by a poem "Come into the Garde, Maud"  by Alfred Lord Tennyson) knows why these roses draw her closer to the fragrance at the garden wall,  or why her hand touches the wall with soft sensuality. 
                                                
    
   

                   
                                                 

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