A short fable for children: a rose-tree that wished to bear other flowers would only fret and never see its own rose, and in the same way envious people overlook the gift in themselves, which care and culture can bring out.
How Lamb's extended metaphor of the rose-tree, its contrast with other flowers and a closing moral turn envy into a conflict inside the self, with contentment as its cure.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'This rose-tree is not made to bear', 'The violet blue, nor lily fair', 'It all in vain would fret', 'It ne’er had seen its own red rose', 'Nor after gentle shower', 'With its own pretty flower', 'Like such a blind and senseless tree', 'All envious persons are', 'With care and culture all may find', 'Some talent that is rare'.
Form: three six-line stanzas, each rhyming in pairs with a shorter third and sixth line that rhyme together, in a simple, regular beat for children; two stanzas build the image of the tree, and the third turns it into a moral about people.
Context: Mary Lamb (1764–1847), who wrote with her brother Charles; Poetry for Children (1809), their book of short poems for children, published without their names, written together for money with Mary's share the larger; and her wish to keep her name out of print.
Links within the cluster: Honour Killing (finding your own worth), Boat Stealing (an inner conflict that teaches a lesson), Songs for the People (discontent soothed by a gentler music) and There’s a Certain Slant of Light (a conflict inside the mind).
An unseen poem paired with it might share its fable-like moral, a conflict inside one person rather than between armies, or envy and rivalry between neighbours.
OCR's mark schemes read it as both a warning against envy and a hope that it can be overcome: blind to its own rose, the envious mind frets and is discontent instead of growing its own talent.
OCR's question on this cluster has two parts. Part (a), 20 marks, compares a named poem from the cluster, printed on the paper, with an unseen poem on a linked theme, and rewards analysis of language, form and structure (AO2) most, then your response (AO1); an answer on only one of the two poems cannot go above Level 3. Part (b), 20 marks, explores one other poem from the same cluster that you choose, from memory, with AO1 and AO2 equally weighted; a poem from a different cluster means only the higher of your two marks counts. Neither part marks context: use it only where it explains a reading. Each worked paragraph and exam tip is labelled with the part it is for.
