Beg a Rose - Brebner High School

Beg a Rose
By Moira Lovell
The Poet
• Moira Lovell is a South African
poet.
• Her third collection of
poems, Not All of Me is Dust,
has recently been published by
the University of KwaZulu Natal
Press, containing 41 works.
• Although Lovell says she works
hard at finding her own poetic
voice and is determined not to
walk in anyone else's tracks, she
does acknowledge a debt to
Douglas Livingstone.
• Lovell is an English teacher at
the Wykenham-Collegiate
Diocesan School for Girls in
Pietermaritzburg.
2013/05/31
1

Beg a Rose
"Madam," a pale voice sidled
Through my car window, "I'm hungry."
I stuffed ten cents into the gob
Of the parking-meter. Its stomach hummed.
Beg a Rose
"Madam, I'm ..." but I was already in the roseshop
5
Choosing thin pinks for the dinner-table décor.
The cash-till shot out its shuddering jaw
And crammed in the titbits of my purse.
2013/05/31
2

Beg a Rose
"Madam ..." the boy embraced the parking-meter
Which flung up a red flag to advertise its
emptiness. 10
I looked at the handful of roses
Incensing the air with inedible aromas.
Format and context
• The poem is written in free verse
• It contains several figures of speech and is
beautifully descriptive and vivid.
• The poem deals with the plight of street beggars,
something that is commonplace in everyday
South African life.
• The poet implies that we have become
desensitised to the suffering of others and even
that we are incredibly selfish.
2013/05/31
3

Lines 1-2
"Madam," a pale voice sidled
Through my car window, "I'm hungry."
• The poem starts with a young
beggar boy asking a well-to-do
lady for food or money.
• His voice is ‘pale’ which is an
actual reference to his
complexion, but also implies
that his voice is weak.
• ‘sidled’ is a reference to the
movement of a skinny, lithe
creature, like a snake – not a
negative reference but rather
an image of how skinny the
boy is.
Lines 3-4
I stuffed ten cents into the gob
Of the parking-meter. Its stomach hummed.
• Instead of giving her change
to the boy, the woman just
puts money into the parking
meter and walks away.
• Her hurry is implied by
‘stuffed’, an urgent motion.
• ‘Gob’ – mouth, but it does
not go to the boy’s mouth,
rather the meter’s.
• The meter is further
personified by the
onomatopoeic ‘hummed’.
• Ironically the boy’s stomach
also hums or growls, but
from hunger pains.
2013/05/31
4

Lines 5-6
"Madam, I'm ..." but I was already in the rose-shop
Choosing thin pinks for the dinner-table décor.
• The woman ignores the little
boy and rushes into the shop
to buy flowers to decorate her
home with.
• Her wealth is implied by the
fact that it’s not a flower-shop,
but a rose-shop, as roses are
more expensive.
• She is not purchasing the roses
for a special occasion, just to
decorate her dining table.
Lines 7-8
The cash-till shot out its shuddering jaw
And crammed in the titbits of my purse.
• Personification
• The continued personification
of machines shows the
absurdity that the woman
would rather give her money
to these non-living things than
save the life of a human being.
• ‘crammed’ implies that the till
is already full, it does not need
more money.
• It is also implied that she does
not place much value in
money, as she refers to it as
titbits – small things of little
value.
2013/05/31
5

Lines 9-10
"Madam ..." the boy embraced the parking-meter
Which flung up a red flag to advertise its
emptiness.
• Repetition of ‘Madam’ at the
start of each stanza
emphasises the boy’s
desperate pleading.
• There is now a camaraderie
between the boy and the
parking-meter.
• The parking-meter shows a
‘red flag’ to show it has run
empty, but it is as if it is
showing that the boy is empty
(hungry) – metaphor.
• In turn the boy embraces the
meter, as it is the only thing
that is sympathising with him.
Lines 11-12
I looked at the handful of roses
Incensing the air with inedible aromas.
• It is possible that the woman feels
a pang of guilt at this point.
• Seeing the boy hugging the meter,
she looks at the expensive,
pointless flowers in her hand.
• Incensing – strong smell, as if
burning incense.
• She realises that the flowers, as
good as they smell, are inedible
and of now help to anyone.
• The idea of buying such expensive
flowers for decoration is almost
vulgar, when measured against
the plight of the starving little boy.
2013/05/31
6