The Romance of the Rose

“In my twentieth year, at the time when Love claims his tribute from young men, I lay down one night, as usual, and fell fast asleep.”

De Lorris’s reference to the “time when Love claims his tribute” associates the age of 20 with coming of age. The narrator portrays his 20th year as the ideal time to develop romantic and sexual interests, introducing The Complications of Sexuality and Desire into the text and foreshadowing the pursuit of the rose that he will soon undertake.

“Her beauty was quite spoiled, and she had become very ugly. All her head was white and bleached, as if with blossom. If [Old Age] had died, her death would not have been important or wrong, for her whole body was dried up and ruined by age.”

The narrator here describes the allegorical figure of Old Age, which sets the patten for how the figures function in the text. Old Age is less of an individual character than the embodiment of an abstract concept: Her faded looks, white hair, and “dried up” body are meant to invoke the physical qualities typically associated with aging, which stand in contrast to the narrator’s youth.

“There were buds, some tiny and closed up and others slightly larger, and some much larger ones which were coming into flower and were on the point of bursting. These buds are attractive, for wide-open roses have completely faded after a day, whereas buds stay fresh for at least two or three days.”

This passage introduces and develops the extended metaphor used throughout the poem of rosebuds and flowers as representing the female body and female sexuality. The comparison to time seems to be a reference to a girl or woman’s maturity and age, implying that the narrator believes younger girls are more attractive—and more romantically or sexually responsive—than older, more experienced women.