Volume 1 │ Issue 12 │ October 2015
AMERICAN RESEARCH THOUGHTS
ISSN: 2392 – 876X
Impact Factor: 2.0178 (UIF)
Available online at: www.researchthoughts.us
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1505094
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROSE AND
OLEANDER AS A SYMBOL OF LOVE WITH
SPECIAL REFERNECE TO USE OF POST
COLONIAL LEITMOTIF OF OLEANDER SYMBOLISM IN
OLEANDER BLOOMS
Dr. Mallika Tripathi
Assoc. Professor & Head of Department, FGIET, Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract: Since ages, the poets had been experimental in expressing the divine virtue of love in their
own inimitable ways. From the first prick of Cupid’s arrow to the complications of love life, all had
been the subject of love poetry. The poets always tried to illuminate the world of love to help us to
comprehend the magical charm and to have a better understanding of human emotions. In order to
woo the beloved and to praise the divine beauty, Rose has always been the first and foremost choice of
the romantic poets but as a novel trend, we see a changing phase in Indian English Literature where
some of the poets are striving to establish Oleander as a new symbol of love. Thus, the present paper
focuses upon the comparative study of Rose and Oleander as a heavenly symbol of love with special
reference to the use of Postcolonial Leitmotif of Oleander Symbolism in Oleander Blooms by Dr.
Ratan Bhattacharjee.
Key Words: Literature, Love, Oleander, Rose, Romance
Colonization was an ugly phase of human society. It was the time when people of
specific areas like Africa, Asia, South America were forced to act as per the whims and
assumptions of few dictators. There was only one rule prevailing, and that was the rule
of tyranny. European People illogically claimed to be superior over others by quoting:
“We’re white. We’re better than they are. We’re civilized. They are savages. We’re their masters.”
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Mallika Tripathi- A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROSE AND OLEANDER AS A SYMBOL OF LOVE WITH
SPECIAL REFERNECE TO USE OF POST COLONIAL LEITMOTIF OF OLEANDER SYMBOLISM IN
OLEANDER BLOOMS
The manifestation of the enduring conflict between colonial and post-colonial values is
broadly defined as post colonialism in literature. Post-colonial literature occurred at a
time when many colonies were fighting their way to independence as quoted,
“Postcolonial literature and criticism arose both during and after the struggles of many
nations of Africa, Asia, Latin America….”
(M. A. R. Habib, 738)
But as an exception to the above mentioned nothing could stop the poets to sing the
universal song of love and they continued to express the holy desire for love, praising
and wooing their beloved through various means. But to our surprise, the song of love
could never be sung so fabulously as by the legendry icon Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee. He
emerges as one of the most acclaimed poet of love bringing us close to the sunshine
while removing our grief through the commendable tapestry of his lyrics. Quoting
about the magnificence of Oleander Blooms Elisabetta Marino, Assistant Professor,
University of Rome, says in her foreword that:
“The most remarkable quality of the charming lines included in this volume is the
capacity to give shape to one’s innermost feelings, longing fears. It is as if the poet had found
the key to the reader’s heart and he decided to open it, revealing the most splendid, cherished and
voluptuous visions as well as exposing the darkest worries that cast a long shadow on the path
of anybody that has ever suffered the pangs of love’. She further adds, ‘Ratan Bhattcharjee’s
poetical compositions are genuine and modest. Real love is never adorned with jewels and
costly objects: respect and gratitude are its humble companions, and a kiss its most precious
flower.”
Though since ages Rose has been the loveliest symbol of love as quoted by Robert
Burns,
“My luv’s like a red, red rose’ and many have been witnessing it to be the most powerful of all
love symbols. Even William Wordsworth once wrote, ‘The Rainbow comes and goes and lovely is
the rose…”
So it has always been considered to be next to God but with a change in the mindset of
Indian poets many have revolted against the existing symbol of Rose, and have tried to
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AMERICAN RESEARCH THOUGHTS- Volume 1 │ Issue 12 │2015
Mallika Tripathi- A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROSE AND OLEANDER AS A SYMBOL OF LOVE WITH
SPECIAL REFERNECE TO USE OF POST COLONIAL LEITMOTIF OF OLEANDER SYMBOLISM IN
OLEANDER BLOOMS
replace it with a better option to begin with a novel chapter in Indian English Love
Poetry.
The most rebellious post in this regard is Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee from Kolkata,
India, who has tried his best to change the existing phase of Indian Love Poetry by
replacing Rose with Oleander in his recently published collection of 132 poems entitled,
Oleander Blooms (Authorpress, India, New Delhi, 2015, ISBN 978-93-5207-045-9).
Oleander Blooms touches our soul leaving us mesmerised in the valley of love. We feel
lost, unable to come out as the Oleander captivates our heart and we get blind by the
dazzling beauty, ‘Blinding beauty of Oleander made me soar to the heights.’ It is an amazing
experience where the readers dip into the holy confluence of love and wish to dwell
eternally but then suddenly they feel struck by the pain; the pain of departure, suffering
and loss as quoted by the poet:
“Sometimes the pain, sometimes the shadows within
In just one day I turned to a hospital dustbin
As lousy, as noisy, as disgusting all over
The field suddenly goes barren
Where now blooms the Oleander?”
One gets shattered and feels like escaping from the real but Alas! There is no escape.
Yes, this is what the poet wishes to express through his meticulous symbol of Oleander.
Oleander is considered to be an ornamental plant that is also known as Desert Rose
which signifies beauty but at the same time it remains to be poisonous too, indicating a
universal phenomenon to maintain the balance in the universe.
During colonial period Rose had been widely accepted as a pious symbol of
beauty, the feminine face of God and the same was imported by the Indian poets too.
Though Rose is considered to be the traditional European symbol of love as it iconize
varied emotions of love e.g. Pink Rose indicating joy, Red Rose for love, Yellow for
friendship, White for peace, Black for death and so on but here the poet rebels against
the conventional symbol of Rose and brings out the lovely Oleander as a novel symbol
of beauty and grace that not only relates to the ecstatic mood of the poet but also makes
him realise the darker side of life that remains to be an unavoidable reality.
The poet has taken Oleander as an emblem of divine beauty, the holy symbol of
his love. He happily accepts the fact that, ‘Time stopped flowing’ as soon as he first met
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AMERICAN RESEARCH THOUGHTS- Volume 1 │ Issue 12 │2015
Mallika Tripathi- A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROSE AND OLEANDER AS A SYMBOL OF LOVE WITH
SPECIAL REFERNECE TO USE OF POST COLONIAL LEITMOTIF OF OLEANDER SYMBOLISM IN
OLEANDER BLOOMS
Oleander. He feels arrested by the heavenly charm of Oleander and finds himself
unable to differentiate between his beloved and the beautiful flower: ‘She is the
incarnation of freedom; She is the definition of beauty….’ He considers the flower to be the
most valuable treasure on earth as he beautifully quotes that,
“When my Oleander talks to me
Her smiles as a shine
I felt as if I have got
A huge gold mine.”
He takes it to be the source of happiness, ‘Your smile made the night vibrant, joys galore as
if magic lamps were lit on a dark dusty floor’. He considers the presence of Oleander in his
life as godsend as it often inspires the poet amidst difficulties of life. He is so engrossed
in his eternal love for Oleander that he personifies it as his beloved:
“Whenever I am in need my Oleander stand behind…..
Oleander makes me feel her enlarged self, vast and wide
Past sorrows are eclipsed and we go for a joy ride.”
The poet can’t hide his love for Oleander. Being a love poet his sensitive soul cries in
pain whenever he goes far away from the divine flower. He longs for the heavenly
union and gets nostalgic while recalling the past,
“Oleander, do you recall the day we waited
The whole day and the orange evening
All our urges and desires thwarted
And we did not get chance for talking or loving”.
The poet feels indebted to the heavenly symbol of love when he confesses, ‘Oleander
taught me all that is love’. He feels shattered by the grief of his beloved as if his God is
angry with him. His heart sinks when he sees tears in the eyes of Oleander. The agony
of his heart makes him cry in pain,
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AMERICAN RESEARCH THOUGHTS- Volume 1 │ Issue 12 │2015
Mallika Tripathi- A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROSE AND OLEANDER AS A SYMBOL OF LOVE WITH
SPECIAL REFERNECE TO USE OF POST COLONIAL LEITMOTIF OF OLEANDER SYMBOLISM IN
OLEANDER BLOOMS
“Tears are the melting point of the heart
Tears cleansed my soul when I was hurt.
But when my Oleander weeps and feels sad
The soundless bell tolls to say, ‘God is not glad.”
Though he frequently quotes the eminent poets like Tagore and Chitra Banerjee
Divakaruni to establish the significance of Oleander as he says,
“When I read Tagore’s Red Oleanders,
I never knew
Oleander, yes red or blue Oleander
Is beautiful and poisonous”
But then he comes out with a peculiar approach as he doesn’t find Oleander to be
poisonous in the same sense as has been used by others, ‘My Oleander is never poisonous/
As the botanist screams’. He feels that the poison indicates the bitter realities of life e.g.
day is always followed by the night, one who is born is certain to die, and union and
separation remains to be the universal truth. Similarly the beautiful and the venomous
flower indicate the divine rules that can’t be denied by an ordinary being. Everything in
life has its own significance else the life would become monotonous.
The symphony of life can be better understood by those who carry a heart to feel
it and he finds Oleander to be the most appropriate flower to manifest the real
definition of love life. Love carries the power to remake or to destroy. It can bring
heaven on earth and at the same time it has the power to turn heaven into hell like
Oleander that remains to be angelic as well as venomous. In the Afterword of this
poetic volume, Antony Johae of the University of Essex, U.K. elegantly describes the
significance of the flower,
“Oleander Blooms: One Hundred Love Poems contains within it a covert two-sidedness of
symbolic meaning. On the one hand, the beauty of the flower (amply illustrated through the
collection) signifying the physical beauty of woman and the ideal aspect of love, while on the
other, containing the potential for destruction because of its poisonous properties when ingested
by humans.”
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AMERICAN RESEARCH THOUGHTS- Volume 1 │ Issue 12 │2015
Mallika Tripathi- A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROSE AND OLEANDER AS A SYMBOL OF LOVE WITH
SPECIAL REFERNECE TO USE OF POST COLONIAL LEITMOTIF OF OLEANDER SYMBOLISM IN
OLEANDER BLOOMS
Here the poet chooses the fortunate Oleander, a flower of global relevance, as a symbol
of his love for his beloved instead of using a conventional symbol. And with the help of
bewitching Oleander he succeeds in his aim of wooing his beloved to a great extent. He
is so passionate about Oleander that he calls it to be a feast,
“A feast to my eyes rediscovering my heart grilled
A passionate downpour making my dreams wet.”
He feels grateful to the flower for blessing him with the second youth, ‘Dreaming of my
Oleander was for me a fest’. He gets crazy at a glance of Oleander and considers to be
‘precious like ivory.’ Sometimes we notice the mingling of thoughts as we fail to
differentiate between the beloved and the Oleander as the poet remains to be fascinated
by the beauty of both and thus leave the readers clueless about the difference between
two heavenly elements. Both become one, arresting the heart of poet as he feels drunk,
“When in a glass house your image glitters
I feel drunk in joyful fritters…….”
Even he is so lost in the beauty of flower that while looking at his beloved he recalls the
glow of oleander,
“Love sometimes opens up silently like a rose
I am all poetry then only to lose all my prose
In the palace love-bewildered you walk slow
In your look I discovered again my Oleander glow.”
We see that the Oleander carry multiple meaning for the poet and we as a reader get
confused to interpret the real meaning of the flower. It is truly said by Karabi Hazarika
in her Research Paper on Oleander Blooms that,
“In Oleander Blooms, we find Oleander to be the symbol of love, neither Platonic, nor Real, it
encompasses the very essence of love. In poem after poem, Oleander comes sometimes as an object
of nature, sometimes as a woman, sometimes as an emptiness, and sometimes as a fullness of
mind.”
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AMERICAN RESEARCH THOUGHTS- Volume 1 │ Issue 12 │2015
Mallika Tripathi- A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROSE AND OLEANDER AS A SYMBOL OF LOVE WITH
SPECIAL REFERNECE TO USE OF POST COLONIAL LEITMOTIF OF OLEANDER SYMBOLISM IN
OLEANDER BLOOMS
In Greek mythology Oleander is associated with charm and romance. Here the poet has
also used it as a symbol of everlasting love that can never die. He immortalised the
beauty of Oleander. We see the spirit of a true love poet who is ready to wait till
eternity for his beloved without being bothered about the earthly constraints. He
profoundly admits that,
“When I wait, I feel waiting to be love as it repels my gloom
Mood-swing occurs, shapeless seasons come,
Yet Oleander bloom.”
Dr. Bhattacharjee surely and certainly emerges to be a great poet of love who
beautifully expresses the pangs of love and pain through the use of lovely Oleander. To
quote Dr. Daniela Rogobete,
“The poet accordingly imagines this universe of love as a ‘Pandora Box’ that encompasses the full
range of conflicting emotions and human virtues and weaknesses, and builds it around a central
metaphorical axis-the evergreen Oleander, mixture of beauty and poison.”
To Dr. Bhattacharjee, the flower remains to be an eternal source of bliss,
“For so many days no water no sunshine
Today we are bathing in sea-light and wave
We are flowing gleefully like the Rhine.
Hour by hour the green in us is growing,
We hear the promise of a flower with wonder
I knew it was a call from none but my oleander.”
We see that the very title of Oleander Blooms announces the supremacy of Oleander
challenging the beautiful Rose in order to diminish its existence as a love symbol. Here
the poet captures the attention of the readers through a wonderful title that turns out to
be a marvellous creation for all who seek love in any form as it is truly said by
Elisabetta Marino, University of Rome, that,
“This collection is the perfect gift for every person that has loved, is in love and looks forward to
finding that special partner with whom to share the journey of life.”
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AMERICAN RESEARCH THOUGHTS- Volume 1 │ Issue 12 │2015
Mallika Tripathi- A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROSE AND OLEANDER AS A SYMBOL OF LOVE WITH
SPECIAL REFERNECE TO USE OF POST COLONIAL LEITMOTIF OF OLEANDER SYMBOLISM IN
OLEANDER BLOOMS
It’s Dr. Ratan’s chef d’oeuvre that can’t be bought with money but with a heart only.
One needs a loving soul to decode the mystical language of love and to understand the
deeper feelings of the poet. This is undoubtedly a masterpiece par excellence where
Oleander as symbolic leitmotif canvasses the flowering of love as a divine and human
experience leaving the readers mesmerised in the magnificent world of Oleander where
they naturally become oblivious of the beauty of Rose, gleefully accepting the eternal
and divine presence of Oleander. Oleander Blooms is bound to give a new dimension to
Indian English Love Poetry by replacing the existing paradigm of Rose with heavenly
Oleander in the near future.
References
1. Bhattacharjee, Ratan. Oleander Blooms: A Bouquet of Love Blossoms. New
Delhi: Authorpress India. 2015
2. Hazarika Karabi. Oleander Blooms: Indian English Poet Exploring ‘Oleander’
Symbology as Alternative Paradigm for Postcolonial Literature, European
Academic Research-Vol. lll, Issue 7/ October 2015
3. M.A.R. Habib. A History of Literary Criticism, New Delhi: Wiley Blackwell, 2008,
In print. ISBN 978-61-265-3398-5
4. Joshi, L.M. and Upreti, Saurabh. The Sinister Twilights’: A Study on
Postcolonialism, Literary Confluence, ISSN 2349-6509
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Mallika Tripathi- A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ROSE AND OLEANDER AS A SYMBOL OF LOVE WITH
SPECIAL REFERNECE TO USE OF POST COLONIAL LEITMOTIF OF OLEANDER SYMBOLISM IN
OLEANDER BLOOMS
About the Author
Dr. Mallika Tripathi has succeeded in carving out her niche in the literary world as a
poetess and a distinguished writer. She hails from Uttar Pradesh India. Currently she is
working as Assoc. Professor & Head, Department Of Humanities at Feroze Gandhi
Institute of Engineering & Technology, Raebareli. She is a sensitive soul who believes in
giving voice to the agonised people. She considers herself to be fortunate enough for
being an academician and an activist as it gives her a perfect platform to work for the
betterment of human society. Since her childhood she has been striving to give wings to
the imagination of her soul that carry her to the unheard voices of the universe. A
heartthrob of countless she made her way to the Regional Finalist round of ‘Ponds’
Women of Tomorrow Contest.’ Due to her aura of eloquence she remains to be an ideal
figure for umpteen. Her charismatic speeches and determination to restore the glory of
women makes her different from others. Her articles, reviews and poems have been
widely published in national and international journals and anthologies. She is a
successful mentor, having a no. of Research Papers to her credit. She is well known for
her poetic venture, ‘I am a Woman: An Anthology of Heartfelt Verses’ that has been
extensively applauded. She is a life time member of ‘The Poetry Society of India’ and
Theodore Dresier Society, USA. She is an honorary legal consultant working for the
welfare of women and a distinguished member of the Editorial Board of ‘Literary
Confluence’, a global bi-annual Journal of English and cultural studies, besides being
associated with Literature Studio Review as a Book Editor. Nowadays she is busy with a
project in Translation Studies.
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