my ideas are the following
as this poem is taken from a novel, it's quite helpful to know some facts what happened (only very little information, as far as necessary):
in the passage before the poem, the reader gets to know the reason why the female protagonist (her name is adeline) started crying: she and her lover Theodore, they're meeting after havin not seen each other for a while and she remembers the happiness when they had met the last time. because before that their relationship was "overshadowed" (any better expression"?) by sadness and horrible thoughts of death, what would mean the final separation if they died. but then they started looking forward more hopefully to their future days and everything seemed to be more bright.
now she begins to cry as she thinks of the contrast between the past and the present situation. but now, these aren't tears of sadness, but - like said in the poem - tears of smiles, of thankfulness.
these tears let disappear her sorrow, despair and fears.
well, this is some "background" knowledge which could be helpful for the poem's analyse and understanding.
but first, some stylistic devices, rhyme, etc
.:
rhyme:
cross rhyme?? (or what is it called? this is a one-to-one-translation)
the rose is "personified"(?) as it is compared to the heroine.
it symbolizes her beauty, loveliness, attractiveness.
but it also stands for
the possibility of easily being hurt? it is very easy to destroy a flower.
although the flower is bent by the dew drops it receives strength from it (more scent, more and better glow). so the tears are not bad at all, they are caused by a deep feeling of love (and hope?) and therefore "smiling / of smiles" and "sweet".
sorrow's connected to darkness (dark clouds), so love's to be the light, she sun, that makes the tears sparkling in the "sunny rays" (=love?).
"blushing flow'r" --- could either only mean that the rose becomes red again (what is sort of the "normal" rose's color, maybe before it was colourless - or black like the sorrow - or a combination of both of it: grey) and now looks more powerful, even more beautiful than before; or the heroine is blushing cause she's ashamed of her tears.
contrasts (which make clear or hint at the contrast she is crying about // which troubles/d her mind):
tears - smiles
love - sorrow
(and maybe) bend - enrich/renew (positive - negative)
bliss - woe
"love's sweet tears exalt his pow'r"
(I still don't know what "his" refers to, cause if it refers to the rose I would say "its" but maybe that's because it was written 200 years ago)
but I guess that the flower get stronger by crying and the tears show this process
argh I'm writing some trash
.
now, the last verse is a kind of summary: it expresses that you may become aware of happiness if you experienced "woe", sorrow, sadness, suffering. the more woe the more joy
(I'm thinking of a kind of "scale", you'll only know what bliss means if you ever suffered the contrary feeling)
ok, that's all I could think of for the moment.
I hope you could understand the most of what I wrote
*g* (remember: actually I'm speaking german
)
and: I would be really very grateful for correction and enhancing!
ciao,
lizza
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