My Pretty Rose Tree is a poem written by the English poet William Blake. It was published as part of his collection Songs of Experience in 1794. Poem Summary A man is offered a flower far surpassing the beauty of an ordinary flower, but he turns it down because he already has a pretty rose tree. He then returns to his tree and tends to her every need both day and night, but she only turns away from him in jealousy and shows him the thorns of her own. Vision of love According to Antal, Blake's Flower Plate is composed of three flower poems on the same plate for a reason: to illustrate three types of love; Poetic Love, Earthly Love, and Human Love. In the "threefold vision of love" idea, this poem represents "Human Love". This is considered to be "Human Love" due to the possessiveness and temptation echoed throughout the poem. Themes and interpretations This poem seems to echo that of a story of a married couple. The man is surrounded by beauty, and at least one beautiful woman, but he declines them all to return to his wife. He is very possessive with his constant use of the word "my", and thus "imprisons" his Rose Tree. She, however, turns away with jealousy and in turn only reveals her thorns to him. Johnson describes My Pretty Rose Tree as "...an ironic reconsideration of the emblem convention. Blake's speaker, having rejected the lovely flower offered him, tries to tend his pretty rose tree with all the single-minded ardor of a Petrarchan lover; but his devotion is a sickness nourished by his perverse or ironic 'delight' in the thorns of jealousy. His love object...both attracts and repels..." In this, the man in the poem is trying to show his love to his rose tree, but only seems to have the love unrequited, even though he treats the rose tree like royalty. This echoes the idea of "Human Love" as we often want things we can't have, and become infatuated with things, or idealizing them instead of actually loving them. The rose tree showing her thorns of jealousy only entices the man more, much like it would any other human. The jealousy is also an acknowledgement (of sorts) of the tree's love for the man. Jealousy is perhaps the last remaining obvious proof of the tree's reciprocal desire for him; proof