''Heart'' month...

How does it feel sleeping or laying down on a “bed of roses”?

        Whether it’s the movie, the Bon Jovi song or the Aussie’s drama series, aren’t you perplexed by the way it sounds?

        It is actually an expression first used by the great poet Christopher Marlowe in one of his great masterpieces, A Passionate Shepherd to his Love in 1599.  The actual lines that accounted it were:

“…And I will make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;…”

        It is a universal idea that the flower rose is the most, if not regarded as the most   beautiful flower of all.  Further, a rose or a bouquet of those given to a woman or to someone connotes love and affection as they are naturally soft and fragrant.  A warm feeling of contentment and easiness are some of the additional feelings that one gets when given or adorned by roses.

        Marlowe’s idea of having a bed of roses would simply mean putting or placing yourself or someone on a condition that is easy and peaceful.  Laying down on them would further bring contentment and a blissful life.

        Applying this to reality, this poetic expression is commonly given or stated by advisers, counselors and those people who have “been-there-done-that” situations.  They often describe a human beings’ life as not always a “bed of roses” which means life is not always that perfect, complete and easily the way we thought of it to be.  The expression tends to be more of an ideal thing in nature.

        The only thing the poet did not notice was the thorns on the stems of those roses.  He should then clarified it as laying down on a bed of “unstemmed” roses.  The person who’ll do it might get easily a free acupuncture treatment…Ouch!