Yogananda's Protecting Thorns
Beauty and Possession
Paramahansa Yogananda's poem, “Protecting Thorns,” consists of two rimed stanzas, each with seven lines, thus comprising an American sonnet. Its rime scheme is ABABBCC in the first stanza and AABBCDC in the second stanza.
The division into two rimed stanzas with variant rime schemes differentiates this sonnet from the English and Italian; its innovative differences account for its falling into the American sonnet category.
First Stanza: “The charm of the blushing rose”
In the first stanza, the speaker reports the fact that even though the beauty of the rose comes streaming from its “blushing,” therefore colorful, petals, also projecting from that lovely form come “stinging thorns.” The thorns are “beneath” or hidden by the leaves like a snake waiting in the weeds ready to strike an intruder.
The speaker then remarks that anyone who tries to “snatch” a rose from its plant will suffer “wounds.” The rose protects its “wealth” and even those who are very careful and act surreptitiously may be caught by those prickly protecting protrusions.
The speaker then avers that the rose “sprang from earthly sod.” And if left “unplucked” will remain a whole beautiful entity, and its thorns will not be “[ ]stained with blood.” But the greedy, uncaring person who rushes to steal the beauty of the rose will suffer.
Second Stanza: “In her defense the barbs do sting”
The speaker then explains that the purpose of the thorns is, of course, to offer “defense” to the rose. Every living creature has some defense mechanism. The thorn’s purpose is to “sting” as a bee would use its defense mechanism of stinging to protect itself.
The rose desires to live as long as possible, as every living thing is programmed to do; thus, the “thorny ring” will do its job if it has to, even though it may become blood-tinged.
The speaker then extols the beauty of the rose and avers that the flower’s loveliness and alluring fragrance should draw the soul, not the fingers. The speaker imparts that loving the “beauty” of the rose is perfectly fine and, in fact, it should be the beauty of the rose that one favors.
The speaker then asks the question: “If thou dost love her beauty alone, / Why would’st thou rush / To bleed from prickly thorn?” It is actually a rhetorical question, which declares that if the human will follow his soul inclination, he will, in fact, be drawn to the beauty of the rose only. He will enjoy that beauty without touching and grasping the physical object.
Commentary
Yogic, like mystical, poetry usually draws distinctions between the seen and unseen in order to show the desirability and superiority of the unseen. While the rose is a physical reality, the object itself is not its purpose for existence, because as the human body ages and dies, so does the rose. But the inspiration of the beauty of the rose is lasting, when the human realizes the difference between physical and soul enjoyment.
Paramahansa Yogananda
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