http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/NigRos.shtml
The influential piece that I have chosen is the poem ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ written by Oscar Wilde. I read this poem a few years ago from within a collection of Oscar Wilde poems and its premise has always stuck with me. It follows the story of a beautiful nightingale who would do anything for the man she loves but he would not. The imagery is lush, Wilde paints a world that is expansive in love, with gardens filled with roses, balls thrown by princes and sing-song scorned lovers. The theme and heart of this poem is unrequited love, explored in two ways. The antagonist, the young student, is supposedly in love with a girl who can only be tempted by superficiality, which is depicted in the line “for want of a red rose is my life made wretched”. The nightingale, observing and empathising with her lover’s pain ultimately kills herself to create the red rose which he desires so much “… Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?'”, an act he does not notice, understand or care for. It highlights the fragility of unfounded love and parallels it with the pain and anguish of ‘true’ love. The inspiration that can be drawn from this poem is the analogous way in which Wilde depicts love, the super natural aspects which give it a slight flare, the delicate detailing in the wording that makes the truth shine so sadly.
What I would like to take from this poem is its innate bravery and commitment to the truth. I hope these themes translate into the way that I conduct interviews, with delicacy and honesty in order to extract the best answers I possibly can.
