Historical Context
The era in which "Incident in a Rose Garden" is set is not directly stated, yet its themes, style, and language hint at the Middle Ages. Justice’s poem brings to mind the concept of danse macabre, or the dance of death, an idea that emerged from Western Europe’s reaction to the bubonic plague, which began claiming millions of lives in the 14th century. This allegorical idea appeared in art and literature, showing a parade of people from various backgrounds, both alive and deceased. One of the earliest depictions of the dance of death was a series of paintings (1424–1425) that used to be in the Cimetière des Innocents, a Paris cemetery relocated in the 18th century. These artworks illustrated a procession of individuals from the church and government being guided to their graves by corpses and skeletons. The living were organized by rank to offer a comprehensive portrayal of humanity. This imagery highlighted death's equalizing force and the notion that it can strike at any time. The first recorded use of the term danse macabre was in 1376 in a poem by Jean Le Fevre. During this period, the preoccupation with death also found expression in morality plays. These were allegorical dramas performed to teach audiences about the journey from sin to salvation and the fleeting nature of earthly life. While Justice’s poem doesn’t feature a procession like the dance of death, it does present a personification of death and characters like the Master and the Gardener, symbolizing different social classes, and it stresses that death doesn’t discriminate by social rank. Some of the more famous morality plays include Mankind and Everyman.
The rapid spread of the bubonic plague and the mystery surrounding its cause fueled widespread anxiety and uncertainty. Various theories were proposed, including one by scholars at the University of Paris, who suggested that a combination of earthquakes and astrological forces was responsible for the plague. Many people believed the plague was divine retribution for humanity's sins, requiring extreme acts of penitence to calm God’s anger. Groups known as flagellants marched through towns, whipping themselves and condemning the Catholic Church for not adhering to God’s laws. In the desperate search for someone to blame, Jews were scapegoated for the epidemic, leading to the persecution and massacre of thousands by frenzied mobs during this time.
During the mid-1960s, when this poem was crafted, the United States was becoming increasingly entangled in the Vietnam War. Televised broadcasts of the conflict, featuring footage of deceased soldiers, became a regular part of the evening news. In 1968, shortly after the Tet Offensive, American photographer Eddie Adams captured a South Vietnamese security officer on film as he executed a Viet Cong prisoner. For those protesting the Vietnam War, this photograph highlighted the war's brutal nature and challenged American perceptions of the South Vietnamese.
The themes of death and mortality are prevalent throughout Night Light. In 1965, Justice turned forty. “Men at Forty,” one of the most widely anthologized poems from the collection, reflects Justice’s feelings about reaching this age. Other poems in the collection explore themes of mortality, aging, and the regret that comes with an unfulfilled life.
Style and Technique
Narrative
“Incident in a Rose Garden” is a narrative poem presented in a dramatic format. Unlike lyric poems, which express the feelings or thoughts of a single speaker, narrative poems tell stories with characters, a plot, and action. This particular poem is entirely composed of dialogue and is delivered from an impartial perspective. The narrator does not intervene to comment on or clarify the events taking place. In this...
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respect, the poem resembles a concise play. The meaning must be inferred by the reader from the dialogue. The poem is structured in three-line stanzas, each line containing three beats, giving it the appearance and rhythm of a poem.
Personification
Personification occurs when human traits are attributed to concepts or inanimate objects. In this poem, Justice personifies death by using traditional imagery associated with death, filled with symbolic representations. He is dressed in black, described as “thin as a scythe,” and his mouth “stood open... with white teeth”—imagery that aligns with the iconic grim reaper figure. While the Gardener and the Master are not personifications, they symbolize two distinct social classes.
Compare and Contrast
1967: In 1967, the average life expectancy for Americans was 70.5 years.
Today: Currently, the average life expectancy for Americans is nearly 77 years.
1967: An international treaty was established to ban weapons of mass destruction from outer space, and the United Nations endorsed a nuclear non-proliferation agreement.
Today: The Bush administration asserts that the threat from rogue nations could still jeopardize U.S. security and endanger millions of citizens in the event of a nuclear strike, advocating for the continued development of a national missile defense system.
1967: The World Health Organization (WHO) initiated a campaign to eradicate the smallpox virus, which had historically claimed millions of lives. Although smallpox had been eliminated in Europe and North America, it persisted in less developed regions. In May 1980, WHO officially declared smallpox eradicated.
Today: Over 33 million people globally have contracted the HIV virus, which can progress to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). The virus claims the lives of more than two and a half million people annually.
Adaptations
Watershed Tapes offers an audiocassette featuring Justice reciting his poetry, titled Donald Justice: “Childhood” & Other Poems (1985).
The audiocassettes Donald Justice I & II were produced by New Letters on the Air in 1984 and 1989, respectively.
The Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature in Washington, D.C., holds recordings of Justice reading alongside Betty Adcock from March 21, 1989.
The Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature in Washington, D.C., also contains recordings of Justice reading with Eavan Boland on October 15, 1992.
Bibliography
Sources
Conarroe, Joel O., “Five Poets,” in Shenandoah, Vol. 18, No. 4, Summer 1967, pp. 87–88.
Howard, Richard, “Donald Justice,” in Alone with America: Essays on the Art of Poetry in the United States since 1950, Atheneum, 1980.
Hunt, William, “The Poems of Donald Justice,” in Poetry, Vol. 112, No. 4, July 1968, pp. 272–73.
Justice, Donald, A Donald Justice Reader, Middlebury College Press, 1991.
—, Night Light, Wesleyan University Press, 1967.
—, Oblivion, Story Line Press, 1998.
—, Selected Poems, Atheneum, 1979.
—, ed., The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees, Stone Wall Press, 1960.
Justice, Donald, and Alexander Aspel, eds., Contemporary French Poetry, University of Michigan Press, 1965.
Malkoff, Karl, Escape from the Self: A Study in Contemporary American Poetry and Poetics, Columbia University Press, 1977.
McMichael, James, “Justice,” in North American Review, Vol. 252, No. 6, November 1967, pp. 39–40.
Pawlowski, Robert, Review of Night Light, in Denver Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 1967, pp. 175–77.
Pritchard, William H., “Poetry Chronicle,” in Hudson Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, Summer 1967, pp. 309–10.
Further Reading
Gioia, Dana, “Interview with Donald Justice,” in American Poetry Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, January/February 1996, p. 37. In this interview, Justice talks about how music has shaped his poetry and shares his views on the rise of creative writing programs.
Gioia, Dana, and William Logan, eds. Certain Solitudes: On the Poetry of Donald Justice, University of Arkansas Press, 1998. This compilation brings together essays and critiques on Justice’s poetry, serving as the most comprehensive source for analysis of the poet’s work.
Howard, Richard, Alone with America: Essays on the Art of Poetry in the United States since 1950, Atheneum, 1969. This anthology of essays by one of America’s most perceptive critics is invaluable for those seeking to place Justice’s poetry within the context of his contemporaries in the post–World War II era.
