Wars of the Roses show their loyalty to the Lancastrian or Yorkist faction respectively. It is often suggested by literary critics that Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" has strong allegorical references to the conflict with York represented by the White Queen and Lancaster represented by the Red Queen. The Yorkist faction used the symbol of the white rose from early in the conflict, but the Lancastrian red rose was apparently introduced only after the victory of Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth, when it was combined with the Yorkist white rose to form the Tudor rose, which symbolised the union of the
To the Rose upon the Rood of Time spiritual or the divine: Yeats poses the rose as a starting point for spiritual regeneration, and surrounds this symbol with the beautiful lyricism, euphony, rhyme and meter which characterizes his early poetry. The repeated phrase “come near” has the feel of an incantation: the rose’s proximity, so close, and yet leaving a space large enough for “the rose-breath to fill,” contributes to the feeling of being on the verge of the divine (line 14). The lack of complete and utter communion with the rose gives the poem an air of sweet suffering that seems necessary in order to achieve the