I see His Blood upon the Rose

Description

Joseph Mary Plunkett was one of the most influential Irish poets of the early 20th century as well as a renowned Irish nationalist and journalist. His role played in the Easter Rebellion armed insurrection was one with historic consequences, while his short but prolific career earned him the friendship and respect of famous poets the likes of Thomas MacDonagh and Padraic Pearse.

Plunkett was greatly inspired by Arabic literature due to contracting tuberculosis at a young age and being forced to reside in the warmer climates of North Africa and the Mediterranean. Combined with his education at Catholic University School and his initiation by Jesuits at the Belvedere College in Dublin, Plunkett acquired much of the religious inspiration he had channeled through many of his poems, including the one presented here.

I See His Blood Upon the Rose is a short but powerful poem expressing the author’s Christian faith and speaking in a near cryptic voice of the mystical tradition. The iconography of the crucifixion is expressed through well-chosen words and metaphors and introduced into a natural setting, upon which the memory of the crucifixion itself is deeply embedded.

The center of the poem speaks about the conviction that the pain and sacrifice of the Christ will never be forgotten, and the power of God is represented through the depiction of the essence of natural events such as the sound of thunder and the singing of the birds.

For Christian readers, I See His Blood Upon the Rose is a strongly symbolic and compelling poem that invokes the faith of devout Christian readers, and strengthens it at the same time. The search for a deeper meaning of human existence in a Christian context is perhaps what makes this exceptional poem truly stand out as a testament to the remarkable value of Joseph Mary Plunkett’s literary talent.
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