A Red Red Rose
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| Robert Burns |
Introduction of the Author
· Burns (1759-1796) was a Scottish poet and lyricist.
· he is considered the national poet of Scotland and a central figure in Scottish literature.
· his father was a tenant farmer so, he worked as a plowboy.
· he grew up poor but well-read and began writing poetry in Scottish dialect.
· as an adult, he was an unsuccessful as his father in making a living at farming.
· in 1791, however, he quit farming for good and moved his family to the nearby town of Dumfries.
· never in good health, on the morning of July 21, 1796, he died at the age of 37.
· he is best known as a pioneer of the Romantic Movement for his lyrical poetry.
What is ballad?
The ballad is an old form of verse adapted for singing or recitation, originating in the days when most poetry were in spoken rather than written form. The typical subject matter of most ballads reflects folk themes important to common people; love, courage, the mystery and the supernatural phenomena. The ballad is rich in musical qualities such as rhythm and repetition
Central Idea of the poem
· written in ballad stanzas, the verse read today as a poem, pieces together conventional ideas and images of love in a way that transcends the ‘low’ or non-literary sources from which the poem is drawn.
· the poem, ‘A Red, Red Rose’ is a lyrical ballad that describes the speaker’s deep love for his beloved and promises that this love will last longer than human life. The beloved of the speaker is as beautiful as the red rose and as sweet as the melody. With the help of the literary devices, the poet has sketched a very vivid and realistic picture of his profound love.
Summary
The poem ‘A Red, Red Rose’ has been composed by Scottish poet Robert Burns where the speaker compares his love first with a blooming rose in spring and then with a melody ‘sweetly played in tune’. By comparing his beloved to the rose and the song, the narrator paints a positive portrait his love. It is a beautiful love song in which the speaker is trying to quantify his feelings by searching the perfect metaphor to describe the eternal nature of his love. But a ‘red rose’ is itself a short-lived object newly sprung only in June and afterwards subject to the decay of time. Thus, the speaker is saying that his love will last a long time, but it is not eternal in the purest sense. Rose is a conventional symbol of love and red is the symbol of love and passion.
The repetition of the adjectives ‘Red, Red’ represent the fullest and most lovely manifestation of the rose. He expresses his deep love by promising his beloved that he will love her until the seas go dry and until the rocks will melt with the excessive heat of the sun. His love will remain until the human race exists in the world. The last stanza is about the speaker’s promise to return to his beloved even if he happens to reach ten thousand miles away from her.
To conclude, the poem ‘Red, Red Rose’ is a love song containing speaker’s powerful expressions of love towards his beloved and his promise to make his love longer than human life. To embellish his love and promise he makes use of common poetic devices such as simile, metaphor, hyperbole, imagery, symbolism and so on.
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. To which two things does the speaker compare his love in the first stanza?
The speaker compares his love to a red rose that is newly sprung in June and the melody that is sweetly played in tune. He makes comparison by using simile, i. e. ‘like’. The repletion of adjective ‘Red, Red’ indicates the fullest and most lovely manifestation of the rose.
b. What does the speaker promise in the second and third stanzas?
The speaker promises in the second stanza that he will love his beloved with a deep and strong passion until the seas go dry. Further, he adds his promise in the third stanza that his love will continue until the rocks melt with the heat of the sun and he will love her as long as there is life on the earth.
c. What imagery does he use in his promise, and why do you think he uses such language?
Imagery can be said as language that evokes a physical sensation produced by one of the five senses – sight, hearing, taste, touch or smell. In other words, imagery refers to descriptive or figurative language that evokes mental images by appealing to the reader’s senses of sight, smell, taste, sound or texture. The narrator has used a sight imagery in his promise for one can see in his/her mind’s eyes. The evident images used in his promise are the seas going dry, rock melting, the earth after the end of human race and the narrator coming back to his beloved after traveling ten thousand miles.
d. In the last stanza, what event is about to happen by mentioning the number of miles?
In the last stanza, the speaker assures his beloved that he will come again even if there is a distance of ten thousand miles between them. The event that about to happen is their reunion after their temporary separation. It also can be interpreted as the meeting of two lovers after they get their rebirth. Another possible interpretation is that they will be loving each other even in their second life, i.e., life after death.
e. Which image in the poem do you find the most memorable or surprising and why?
The images of becoming the seas dry and the melting of rocks with the sun are found to be most surprising in the poem because it is almost impossible to remain one’s love to somebody for such a long time. No one knows when the seas go dry and the rocks melt. The image of melody that sweetly played in tune is the most memorable one because this image of hearing makes readers feel better. It activates one’s mental taste buds.
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!
These lines expressing the final promise of the speaker have been taken from the poem ‘A Red, Red Rose’ by Robert Burns. Uttering these lines, the speaker assures his beloved that he will be back for her after travelling ten thousand miles. This promise reflects his hyperbolic passion. Two lovers are separated by ten thousand miles. The speaker seems to be going away and he wants to ensure that his love does not doubt his feelings. These lines simply call for faithfulness. By using the exaggerated and symbolic words, the speaker seeks to assure his love of his devotion.
b. What is the theme of the poem?
The main theme of the poem is power of love over the inevitable passage of time. The speaker claims that his love is as beautiful as a red rose that is newly sprung in June and the melody that is sweetly played in tune. He appeals sense of sight and hearing to praise the beauty and pleasing power of his love. He makes hyperbolic use of sight imagery to express his deep, passionate and long-lived love. Time passes, it snatches their life but his love remains as long as there is life on the earth. It is the power of love that builds the speaker’s confidence to sustain his love until the seas go dry, the rocks melt and towards the end of human race. He promises to be back even if he is ten thousand miles away and stay faithful during their separation. Only powerful love makes such promises come true.
c. Paraphrase the whole poem into simple prose form.
The poem opens with the speaker comparing his love with a beautiful red rose and praising her beauty. He powerfully expresses his passionate love by saying his love is like a red, red rose that is newly sprung in June and the melody that is sweetly played in tune. He declares that his love will be so deep and long-lived that it will survive until the seas go dry, the rocks melt and as long as there is life on this planet. He promises that although he must leave, he will come back, even if he must travel ten thousand miles. Here the speaker seems to bid farewell to his beloved and promises to return to her, no matter the hardships and obstacles. Imploring farewell to his beloved, he emphasizes that she is his one and only love.
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.
The most obviously used literary device in this poem is ‘simile’ which is apparent in the lines ‘O, my love is like a red, red rose’ and ‘O, my love is like the melody’. A simile compares two unrelated things using like and as.
Symbolism makes use of an idea or image that suggests something else. A symbol is a kind of shorthand, as a subtle way of introducing a significant idea or attitude. In this poem, the poet has used rose as conventional symbol of love.
Another literary device used in this poem is imagery. imagery can be said as language that evokes a physical sensation produced by one of the five senses – sight, hearing, taste, touch or smell. The poet has used sight images to make his promises more profound as he says ‘Till a’ the seas gang dry’, ‘And the rocks melt wi’ the sun’ and so on. He has used hearing image while he says ‘That’s sweetly played in tune’.
Alliteration refers to the repetition of initial consonant sound in words that are closely used within a line of poetry or a sentence such the repetition of /l/ and /r/ sounds in ‘…. my love is like a red, red rose’.
Assonance refers to the repetition of similar vowel sounds within words and phrases, commonly used for a lyrical effect in poetry such as the repetition 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 is a figure of speech that is bold overstatement or the extreme exaggeration of fact or of possibility. It may be used for serious or ironic or comic effect. In this poem, it is used to create serious and comic effect. The speaker has used hyperbole while making promise to his beloved; “Till a’ the seas gang dry”, “And the rocks melt wi’ the sun” and “While the sands o’ life shall run”. Use of these hyperbole make readers think of the speaker’s promise seriously and for some, it is also humorous for it is highly emotional and excessively exaggerated promise that exists only in imagination and convictions.
f. What is refrain? Why is it used in the poem? Explain citing an example from the poem.
Refrain refers to the repetition of a line or parts of a line, or a group of lines in a poem, sometimes with slight changes, and usually at the end of each stanza. It is used to place an emphasis on an idea in a poem. Unlike traditional pattern, refrain occurs in the second last line of the second and third stanzas in the poem ‘A Red, Red Rose’. The refrain “And I will love thee still, my dear” is used here to emphasize and reiterate the speaker’s strong feelings towards his beloved.
References beyond the text
a. What kind of love is expressed in ‘Red, Red Rose’?
The speaker’s deep and passionate love is expressed in ‘Red, Red Rose’. He seems to be expressing long lived but not eternal love for he describes the beauty of his love in terms more temporary natural object, i. e. rose blooming in June and his promise to continue his love is expressed in relation to long lived natural things particularly the seas drying up and rocks melting with the sun. The seas and rocks are durable but not eternal. The speaker imagines so long-lived love that survives as long as there is human life. His description does not reflect eternity of his love for this world itself, for him, is destructible. His idea of temporariness is evident when he says “Till a’ the seas gang dry”, “And the rocks melt wi’ the sun” and “While the sands o’ life shall run”. These sentences do not reflect the idea of permanence but his conviction on his long-lived love that will sustain longer than their own life.
b. Do you think that love has power? Why do the poets compose poems addressing their beloved?
Yes, I think that love has power because it ensures hope, encourages accompaniment and interdependence. It is the love that allows people to make promise and go beyond their control to their emotional world.
The poets compose poems addressing their beloved to make their love long-lived and eternal in an elevated sense. Their reservation about their love can be powerfully expressed in poems. What is not expressed to their beloved is expressed in poems. Mostly, they praise the beauty of their beloved and express their feelings towards her/him in the love poems. Thus, the poets compose poems addressing their beloved to blend their feelings and emotion, love and passion with the creative works of their art.
c. Poetry is the expression of feelings and emotions. Explain.
Poetry is an art form that uses language to evoke emotions and feelings through the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, meter, rhyme, and other literary devices. It allows poets to communicate their personal experiences, thoughts, and observations in a creative and imaginative way, and it can evoke deep emotions and connections in the reader or listener. Poetry provides a means of exploring and expressing the complexities of the human experience, and it has the power to move and inspire people in unique ways.
The famous nature poet William Wordsworth defines ‘poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. For nature poets, poetry takes its origin from the emotion recollected in tranquility. Human feelings and emotions are expressed in poetry using various literary devices such as simile, metaphor, hyperbole, symbolism, assonance, alliteration and so on. Human feelings and emotions normally go beyond their control. One can easily mark exaggeration in their expressions. Human beings are more emotional than rational. But our social norms and value always seek logic, law and order. Law and order regulate society but normally discourage emotions and personal feelings for human feelings and emotions reject barriers. Such barriers are overcome in the poetry. Poets’ inner feelings are dominant and overflowed in the poems that they create. One’s inner self can be disclosed and his/her secret can also be reflected in his/her poetry.
Some apparent rhyming words in the poem:
June – tune
Sun – run
While -mile
