“The Rhodora” vs. “Design”

Thesis: Emerson’s “The Rhodora” and Frost’s “Design” both address the question of why things exist and they have a similar first half, but the second halves of the poems highlight the contrasting views of the two speakers.

Imagery

            “The Rhodora”

“I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, / Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook” (2-3).

            “Design”

“I found a dimpled spider, fat and white, / On a while heal-all, holding up a moth” (1-2).

In both of the above quotations the speaker is describing something that they see in nature.  In “The Rhodora” the speaker is describing where he sees the flower and what it is doing.  In “Design” the speaker is describing the location of the spider, heal-all, and moth in relation to each other.  Each of the quotations above are just one example the the extensive imagery used throughout the first eight lines of each poem describing the complexities of each scene.

Shift

            “The Rhodora”

“Rhodora! if the sage’s ask thee why” (9).

The shift occurs in the audience.  The audience during the first eight lines of the poem doesn’t play a major role; the scene is just being described.  However, in the second half of the poem the audience shifts to become the rhodora.  The apostrophe shows a respect for the flower and it humanizes the flower to an extent, adding to the idea displayed in the end of the poem.

            “Design”

                        “What had that flower to do with being white” (9).

The shift in this poem occurs in the content of what the speaker is saying.  In the first eight lines the speaker describes what he sees.  In the second half of the poem the speaker is questioning why what he saw exists.  The speaker asks a series of questions relating directly to what he observed in the first half.  These questions then lead the speaker to his final conclusion of why these things exist.

Contrasting Ideas

            “The Rhodora”

                        “The self-same Power that brought me there brought you” (16).

The capitalization of “Power” is meant to indicate that the power is God because whenever God is referenced the word being used is capitalized because it is acting as a proper noun.  With the power being God, it can be concluded that the speaker believes that the same God who brought him to Earth brought the Rhodora.   This speaker believes that God creates things having a well-intentioned purpose in mind; he believes that beauty itself is a good enough reason for existence. 

            “Design”

“What but design of darkness to appall? - / If design govern in a thing so small (13-14).

The speaker claims that the designer, God, has only created the situation with the spider, moth and heal-all to appall.  This idea goes against the more commonly accepted idea that God creates things for good.  The speaker believes that things only exist because God makes them, but he also thinks that the small and insignificant things are made to be bad.