A Red, Red
Rose
Robert
Burns
§ Known as Rabbie Burns, Bard of Ayrshire or ploughman
§ Born in Scotland in 1759 and died in Dumfries in 1796 at the age of 37,
§ The son of a poor farmer father
§ Known as the National Poet of Scotland and a central figure of Romantic Movement in Scottish literature,
§ Continued farming in a partnership of his brother, but did not get success,
§ Planned to emigrate to Jamaica after failure in farming and love, but he gave up his plan after getting immense success in poetry writing,
§ He ruined his life of alcoholism,
§ His language is mixture of Scots and Southern English.
About
the Poem:
§ It is a famous lyrical poem called ballad,
§ Ballad- it is about a romantic love written in four lined stanzas
(quatrain)
§ Lyric is a song that is sung to the accompaniment of a
musical instrument,
§ Ballad expresses a story about love, tragedy and patriotism
etc
§ This poem is rich in figure of speech such as simile, images,
symbol, hyperbole, repetition and alliteration
§ The poem glorifies love or this poem is about a romantic
love,
§ Romantic love- beloved means to high emotion and physical
separation can serve as a stimulant to ideal passion,
§ The beloved of the speaker is as beautiful as the red rose
and as sweet as the music,
§ This poem is words sketch of the speaker’s profound love to
his beloved,
§ Theme: love will last longer than a human life, or lovers
die but the love never dies, beauty is transitory and love is eternal
§ Tone: optimistic/hopeful
§
The speaker describes his or her love—meaning
either the person the
speaker loves or the speaker's feelings of love for that person—as
being as beautiful, vivid, and fresh as a flower that has just recently
bloomed. This
love is as sweet as a beautiful song played by a skilled musician.
§
The beloved is so beautiful that the speaker loves her with a
deep and strong passion—so strong, in fact, that the
speaker's love will last until the oceans have become dry.
§
Even after the seas have
evaporated and
the earth has decayed, the speaker will still love
the beloved. This love will endure until their own lives have ended and even
until all human life has ended.
§ The speaker concludes by saying
goodbye to the beloved—who is, the speaker reminds her,
the only person the speaker loves. The speaker wishes her well
during their temporary separation. The speaker reaffirms his or
her faithful love by promising to return even if the journey covers a
very long distance and takes a very long time.
Structural
Analysis:
v Simile:
v Rhyming
v Images
v Symbol
v Hyperbole
v Repetition
v Alliteration
Glossary
a’ – all
gang- go
o’ – of
tho’-though
Fair- beautiful/just
Tune- musical tune
Thou- you
Thee- you
Sprung- bloom
Melody-sweet music
Bonnie- beautiful/sweet heart
Lass- girl
Art-are
Wi’- with
Form:
The poem has the form of
a ballad.
It has four stanzas of four lines each (quatrains),
with a rhyme scheme in each stanza of ABCB.
The ballad form is an old one
in English poetry, dating back centuries. It began as an oral form: ballads
were not written but passed down through performance, often set to musical
tunes. In the later years of his life, Robert Burns took on the project of
collecting traditional Scottish ballads and songs. He would visit Scottish
villages in the country and transcribe the ballads he heard sung there. Burns
based "A Red, Red Rose" on a ballad he heard in the country, and he
commissioned a musical accompaniment for the words. To that end, lines 3-4 are
almost a reference to the form of the poem itself. Because ballads are often
set to music and sung, the poem itself like the sweet melody to which the
speaker compares his or her love.
Rhyming
Scheme
The poem has the rhyme
scheme associated with the ballad form
of:
ABCB
This rhyme scheme is
maintained regularly through the whole poem—perhaps reflecting the fixed,
secure nature of the speaker's love. A possible exception could be seen in
stanzas 3 and 4: because the first and third lines of those stanzas end with
the same word—"dear" and "dear"; "luve" and
"luve"—their rhyme scheme could be considered ABAB. This is also
called identical rhyme; in any case, this just adds extra emphasis to
words of affection.
The end rhymes function to
link the words that share the same sound. For instance, the rhyming words
"sun" and "run" in lines 10 and 12 reinforce the idea that,
as the sun's heat gets intense enough to melt the rocks; it will mean the end
of all life on the planet. The rhymes of "awhile" and
"mile" in lines 14 and 16 remind the beloved that no matter how long
the journey is (up to ten thousand miles), it will still feel short in a
certain sense (just a short while) because the separation will never be
permanent; the speaker will always return.
“A Red, Red Rose” Speaker
Most basically, the speaker of
the poem is someone who is in love with the poem's addressee. The beloved is
addressed as "lass,"
a Scottish term for a young woman, but the gender and age of the speaker are
unspecified. The poem was derived from an old country ballad that was passed
down through oral performance, and it's likely that the original ballad was
adaptable to be sung by performers of either gender.
Overall, the speaker is not
given a lot of specific identifying characteristics. This anonymity more easily
allows any performer or any reader to imagine him or herself as the speaker of
the poem, as do the universal symbols of love (the rose, music) in the first
stanza. The Scottish dialect in the poem ("bonnie lass," "gang dry," "fare thee weel") does
suggest, however, that the speaker is Scottish.
In the first stanza, the
speaker describes his or her love as being like a rose that is "newly sprung." This suggests
that their romantic relationship has just begun. But in the final stanza, as
the speaker is preparing to leave on an extended journey, he or she tells the
beloved that she is their "only
luve" and promises
to return to her no matter how long the journey is. This suggests that
there is already a high level of commitment and trust between the couple. It
may not be that the relationship is new but that the speaker still feels the
same passion and excitement about the relationship even after some time has
passed.
“A Red, Red Rose” Setting
As is the case with the poem's
speaker, the setting is rather ambiguous. The Scottish dialect in the poem such
as "bonnie lass,"
"gang dry," "fare thee weel" suggests that
the speaker is Scottish and that the poem may be set in Scotland, specifically
in the countryside. The reference to the seas going dry is all the more
powerful if the speaker and the beloved live in a country like Scotland where
much of the land is close to the ocean; for people used to seeing or living
close to the ocean, the image of the seas disappearing is all the more
striking. The archaic dictions such as "art thou," "love thee" suggests that the
poem may be set sometime in the past, or else in a remote area of the country
where speech has not yet been modernized.
Analysis
“A Red, Red Rose” begins by describing the
speaker’s love for a beloved with images that are beautiful but not necessarily
long-lasting. The speaker then affirms, however, that his or her love will
outlast human life itself. Through the speaker’s paradoxical (but
passionate) claims, the poem argues that true love is both constantly renewing
and completely unchangeable.
The speaker begins by
describing love in terms that are beautiful but that don’t immediately suggest
permanence. The first lines compare the speaker’s love to “a red, red rose.”
“Luve” could refer to the beloved, the person the speaker loves. It could also
refer to the speaker’s feelings for this person. Saying the beloved is like a
rose “newly sprung in June” emphasizes her beauty and youth. Meanwhile, saying
that the speaker’s love for her is like a new rose implies that this is a new
relationship, with all the freshness and excitement of a developing romance. Of
course, a rose can only be “newly sprung” for a short time; June ends after
thirty days, and flowers fade quickly. If the speaker’s love is just like a new
rose, maybe it won’t last very long.
The speaker then says this
love is like “a melody / That’s sweetly played in tune.” But again, instruments
can go out of tune, just as flowers can fade. The newness and excitement of the
speaker’s love initially make it seem somewhat unstable.
Then, however, the speaker
goes on to emphasize how long this love will last. The speaker uses three
images to measure how long these feelings of love will last: the seas going
dry, the rocks melting, and the sands of life running out. These events could
only occur after eons of time, if ever. It seems now that the speaker’s love,
far from lasting only as long as a flower, will actually endure longer than
human life. Although these conflicting descriptions of the speaker’s love sound
like a paradox, the speaker continues to insist that true love really can
embody these seemingly opposite qualities of newness and permanence.
In the final stanza, the
speaker bids farewell to the beloved, as if the speaker is planning to leave on
a journey. The beloved doesn’t need to worry, though, because the speaker
promises to return, even if the journey is “ten thousand mile[s]” long. This
promise implies that, just as long stretches of time could not exhaust the
speaker’s love for the beloved, a long stretch of distance cannot keep the
speaker from her. And the length of this journey now seems short—just
“awhile”—compared to the near-infinite time the speaker’s love will last. It
seems, then, that love like the speaker’s is powerful enough to make earthly
obstacles (like physical distance) feel insignificant. That is, this love is
reliable and constant, but it also feels fresh and exciting enough to adapt to
changed circumstances. The moment of farewell in the final stanza highlights
the speaker’s core argument: love that lasts forever is also love that allows
for change over time.
Understanding
the Text
a)
To which two things does the speaker compare his love in the
first stanza?
Ans:- “O My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose”, or “A
Red, Red Rose” is a lyrical ballad written by a Scottish poet Robert Burns. This
poem is about romantic love which lasts longer even after the doom of the world
or human kind. The poem is written in four stanzas having four lines each. In
the first stanza, the poet compares his bellowed with two things which are red
rose and melody. There is the use of simile in which the comparison is made
between two different things using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. In the first comparison,
the freshness, charming, beauty and attraction of a rose is compared with the
freshness, charming, beauty and attraction of the lady. In the second
comparison, her sweet and magical voice is compared with melodious tune of
music.
b)
What does the speaker promise in the second and the third
stanza?
Ans:- In the
second stanza of the poem ‘A Red, Red Rose’, by Robert Burns, there is a
promise made by the speaker to his beloved who is his beautiful sweet heart. He
loves her very much and his love never dies even though the world ends. In this
promise of the speaker we find the use of hyperbole to make impossible things
possible to show the intensity of his love to her. ‘Seas go dry’ which is
impossible or this thing never happens until there is an end of the word. In
another words, he promises that he will love her forever and ever even after
his death.
c)
What imagery does he use in his promise, and why do you
think he uses such language?
Ans:- Imagery
means the mental picture arouse in our minds when we read the words in the
poem. The speaker makes a promise that he love her forever and to show his
intense love to her he uses the imagery of dry sea and melted rock. These
images are used to exaggerate his promise in intense manner. Seas never go dry
and the sun can never melt the rock but he says that he loves her until the
seas go dry and until the sun melts the rock, this means his love is eternal
and it never dies. I think he has used such images and hyperbolic language to
convince his beloved that she is the only girl whom he loves a lot. Such kinds
of promises are made by new lover to romanticize their love to each other.
d)
In the last stanza, what event is about to happen by
mentioning the number of miles?
In the last
stanza of the poem “A Red Rose”, the speaker directly addresses his beloved.
This is time when there is going to be a physical distance between them. They
are parting to each other but his beloved can’t tolerate this separation. To
console and convince his beloved the speaker says, “An I will come again, my love,
/ Tho’ it were ten thousands mile!” This is also a hyperbole because it was
impossible to cross a ten-thousand-mile distance during the time the poem was
written. He wants to assure that he will come again.
e)
Which image in the poem do you find the most memorable or
surprising and why?
Ans:- As we read the poem,
we find that the poem is reach in literary devices or figure of speech. There
is the use of simile, hyperbole, refrain and imagery. But the most striking
aspect of the poem is the used of imagery. The most striking and unusual images are dry
seas and melted rock. We even can’t imagine of any sea going dry and any rock
melting in the sun. He has used such surprising images to idealize his love to
her. By bringing the impossible images, he wants to say that his love to her is
immeasurable.
Reference
to the Context
a)
What can you infer about the speaker’s devotion to his
beloved from the following lines?
And I will come again, my love,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!
The above lines
are extracted from the famous lyrical ballad “A Red, Red Rose”, written by a
Scottish poet Robert Burns. The poem expresses a deep love of the speaker to
his beloved. The above lines are the last lines of the poem in which the
speaker is promising to his beloved that he will come to meet her even if he is
ten thousand miles away. When the speaker promises to return after a long journey,
knowing the beloved will have aged in that time, the speaker reaffirms that his
or her feelings will remain the same even though the beloved may grow less
beautiful. The speaker concludes by bidding farewell to the beloved and
promising to return to her, even if the journey is “ten thousand mile[s]” long.
The beloved will likely be older, less youthful, and perhaps less beautiful by
the time the speaker returns. Nevertheless, the speaker does promise
to return, indicating that although the beloved may change, the speaker’s
feelings will remain constant. Through the final promise, the poem indicates
again that the love youthful beauty inspires need not end when youth itself
ends.
b)
What is the theme of the poem?
The main subject
matter or theme of the poem “A Red, Red Rose’ is love will last longer than a
human life. In other words, the poet says that the physical union or separation
does not matter, what matters the most is the union of two souls with the bond
of eternal love. This poem also teaches us those lovers die physically but their
love never dies. The poem begins with the description of physical beauty of his
beloved and initially we infer that the speaker is attracted to her physical
beauty. But when we read the whole poem, the speaker is not talking about
physical love instead he is talking about eternal love which never dies even
the beautiful lady become aged, and ugly. Because of his comparison of his
beloved to strange and unusual things, we come to know that his love is
permanent love.
c)
Paraphrase the whole poem into simple prose form.
The poet, very artistically draws a
picture of his profound love. He paints this picture with intense emotions.
The speaker compares his beloved with “a red rose” and “sweet melody”
to intensify his deep feelings for her. He addresses her, proclaiming that his
love will stay still until the seas dry up and the rocks melt with the sun
because his beloved is so adorable. For some reasons, he has to go far away
from her, but he promises to return even if he has to travel thousands of miles
to win her back. What enchants the reader is the metaphorical representation of
love through natural phenomena the sea and the sun.
d) Literary
devices are tools that enable the writers to present their ideas, emotions, and feelings and also
help the readers understand those more profound meanings. Analyze the poem in
terms of the literary devices such as simile, symbolism, imagery, alliteration
and assonance.
Literary
devices are tools that enable the writers to present their ideas, emotions, and
feelings and also help the readers understand those more profound meanings.
Robert Burns has also used some literary elements in this poem to show the
beauty of the beloved and the intensity of his love. The analysis of some of
the literary devices used in this poem has been listed below.
Simile: Simile is a device used to
compare an object or a person with something else to make the
meanings clear to the readers. There are two similes used in this poem. The
first is used in the first line, “O my Luve is like a red, red rose” Here, the
poet compares his beloved with a red rose. The second is used in the third
line, “O my Luve is like the melody”, and the poet compares his love with sweet
melody.
Consonance: Consonance is
the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound
of /l/ in “ And fare thee weel awhile!”.
Enjambment: Enjambment refers to the
continuation of a sentence without the pause beyond the end of a
line, couplet or stanza such as:
“O my love is like the melody,
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
Symbolism: Symbolism means to use symbols
to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings different from
their literal meanings. Robert has used “rose” as a symbol of love.
Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition
of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sounds of /l/ and /r/ in “O my
Luve is like a red, red rose”.
Imagery: Imagery is a distinct
representation of something that can be experienced or understood through five
senses. Robert has used visual imagery in the poem such as, “O my Luve is like
a red, red rose”,” And the rocks melt wi’ the sun” and “While the sands o’ life
shall run”.
Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of
vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /i/ in “I will love thee
still, my dear”.
e)
What is hyperbole? Explain its purpose citing examples of
hyperbole used in the poem.
Hyperbole: Hyperbole is a device used to
exaggerate a statement for the sake of emphasis. The poet has used hyperbole in
the last line of the second stanza, “Till a’ the seas gang dry.” He says that
his love will flow even when the seas dry up. The second is used in the third
stanza, “And the rocks melt wi’ the sun.”
f)
What is refraining? Why is it used in the poem? Explain
citing an example from the poem.
Refrain: The
lines that are repeated again at some distance in the poems are called refrain.
The line, “And I will love thee still, my dear” has become a refrain, as it has
been repeated in second and the third stanzas.
Reference
beyond the text
a) What kind of love is expressed in “A Red, Red Rose”?
b) Do you think that love has power? Why do the poets compose
poems addressing their beloved?
c) Poetry is the expression of feeling and emotions. Explain.
Analysis of Poetic Devices in “A Red, Red Rose”
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few
are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices
used in this poem.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of
some line. There are four stanzas in this poem; each consists of four
lines.
- Quatrain: A quatrain is a
four-lined stanza borrowed from Persian poetry. Here, each stanza is
quatrain as the first one and the second one.
- Rhyme Scheme: The poem follows the
ABCB rhyme scheme and this pattern continues throughout the
poem.
- Iambic Trimeter: Iambic trimeter is
a meter in which there are three iambs per line. For example,
“That’s newly sprung in June.”
- Iambic Tetrameter: Iambic tetrameter is a meter
in which there are four iambic feet per line. For example, “As fair art thou my bonnie lass.”
- Repetition: There is the repetition of the
line, “I will love thee still, my dear” which has created musical quality
in the poem.
- Refrain: The lines that are repeated again at
some distance in the poems are called refrain. The line, “And I will
love thee still, my dear” has become a refrain, as it has been repeated in
second and the third stanzas.
Beauty,
Youth, and Aging “A Red, Red
Rose” initially suggests that the speaker’s love is generated by the beloved’s
youth and beauty—qualities that fade with time. The speaker then affirms,
however, that these temporary qualities actually give rise to feelings that
persist eternally, through aging and even through death. The poem seems to
argue that beauty and youth are so powerful that they can inspire feelings that
last long after these qualities themselves are gone.
The speaker begins with an
image of the beloved that emphasizes her youth and beauty, suggesting a love
that is enthusiastic but likely to fade with time. The speaker tells the reader
that this love “like a red, red rose.” Roses are most beautiful when “newly
sprung”—but this is a beauty that, by definition, cannot last. Newness ends
quickly, and all flowers eventually fade—they cannot be “red, red” forever. If
“my Luve” refers to the beloved, then comparing her to a rose acknowledges that
she is beautiful now but that her beauty will fade over time. Or, if “my Luve”
refers to the speaker’s feelings for her, then it seems that the speaker’s
feelings may also fade over time.
As the poem continues,
however, the speaker suggests that the impermanent qualities of youth and
beauty give rise to a love that is permanent. The speaker’s love will remain
constant even through aging, decay, and death. In the second stanza, the
speaker affirms the beloved’s beauty—“So fair art thou”—and the speaker’s
strong love for her—“So deep in luve am I.” The parallel phrases
starting with "So" suggest a causal connection between the two ideas.
It is because she is so beautiful, as beautiful as a rose, that the speaker’s
feelings for her are so strong. They are so strong, in fact, which they will
last longer than any rose. Somewhat counter intuitively, the poem claims that
the speaker’s love will actually outlast the rose-like beauty that initially
inspired it.
To indicate how long he or she
will love the beloved, the speaker uses three images: the sea going dry, the
rocks melting with the sun, and the sands of life running out. These images
represent great lengths of time (it would take an eternity for these events to
happen) and, crucially, also describe processes of decay. They show the natural
world losing its vitality and form, in much the same way as an individual
flower would. Through these images, the speaker is indirectly confronting the
reality of aging and death—not just in the natural world, but also in the lives
of this couple. The speaker implies that he or she will continue to love the
beloved even as she ages and her beauty decays. That is, her beautiful
appearance may have first inspired their love, but their love will endure even
when her beauty is gone. It will last, in fact, until the sands of their lives
have run out and they draw close to death.
When the speaker promises to
return after a long journey, knowing the beloved will have aged in that time,
the speaker reaffirms that his or her feelings will remain the same even though
the beloved may grow less beautiful. The speaker concludes by bidding farewell
to the beloved and promising to return to her, even if the journey is “ten
thousand mile[s]” long. The beloved will likely be older, less youthful, and
perhaps less beautiful by the time the speaker returns. Nevertheless, the
speaker does promise to return, indicating that although the
beloved may change, the speaker’s feelings will remain constant. Through the
final promise, the poem indicates again that the love youthful beauty inspires
need not end when youth itself ends.
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