# Rose — Poetry character guide

> Rose in Poetry by George MacDonald.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Rose - blotted eve, the Bell Bing, Bing, the Bell, The Bell

**First appearance:** 0005-a-book-of-dreams

## Snapshot

A symbolic presence of blotted evening and ringing bell, whose moving chime smites the soul like a word in time.

## Who they are

Rose moves through these poems as the blotted eve and the bell that bings through the fading light, a figure whose chime strikes the soul like a breathless wish or a thought in rime. Her tension lies in the way her music both awakens and mourns—truth that looked gloomy and high leaps to the arms with a joyful cry, yet the stars of heaven melt silently away when their course is run. She matters because her evening imagery frames the book's meditation on mortality, the footfall on snow and the wave that dies like the rest for aye.

## In the story

### [The Owl and the Bell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se/chapters/the-owl-and-the-bell)

The bell personified, singing 'Bing, Bim, Bang, Bome!' and causing the owl distress.

### [The Wakeful Sleeper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se/chapters/the-wakeful-sleeper)

The little girl who sleepwalks into the room, drawn by music, and sits listening before returning to bed.

### [Bell Upon Organ](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se/chapters/bell-upon-organ)

The Bell speaks, asserting its superiority over the Organ.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se/characters/rose_and_bell
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se/characters