Robert Burns

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"A Red, Red Rose"

• Robert Burns
• Scotland
• Presentation by Jill and Jennifer

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Robert Burns

• Born in Alloway, Scotland-1759
• Hard early life
• Proposed to Jean Armour, twin sons
• After rejection moved to West Indies
• Traveled around collecting Scottish folk songs
• Rose in prominence and popularity, married Armour
• Died from rheumatic heart disease-1796

• Works
• Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect
• The Scots Musical Museum
• A Selection of Scots Songs
• Select Collection of Original Airs for the Voice

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" A Red, Red Rose"

• O my Luves like a red, red rose,
• Thats newly sprung in June
• O my Luves like the melodie
• Thats sweetly playd in tune.
• As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
• So deep in luve am I
• And I will luve still, my Dear,
• Till a the seas gang dry.
• Till a the seas gang dry, my Dear,
• And the rocks melt wi the sun
• And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
• While the sands o life shall run.
• And fare thee weel, my only Luve!
• And fare thee weel, awhile!
• And I will come again, my Luve,
• Tho it were ten thousand mile!

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Poem Summary

• Simple sounding
• red rose-roses ideal state
• Rose/melody dies-love cant last forever
• Concept of a timely love
• 2 meanings-sands of time
• Leaving but will return

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Theme

• Time
• Even the greatness of love cannot surpass time
• Temporary vs. Eternal
• Interconnection between life and death
• Love growing, still not eternal
• Idea of love greater than love itself
• Other Themes
• Love Passion
• Duty Responsibility

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Images

• Also includes similes/metaphors (ex. 1st stanza)
• seas gang dry
• rocks melt wi the sun
• sands o life shall run

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Symbols

• red, red rose-fleeting beauty
• Melodie-beauty lives on in abstraction
• till the seas gang dry, rocks melt wi the
  sun-all is possible
• sands o life-beyond time/hourglass
• ten thousand mile-surpassing time distance

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Figures of Speech

• Similes
• Love (the person) is like
• A Red, Red Rose
• melodie
• Personification
• sands o life shall run
• Hyperbole
• till a the seas gang dry
• rocks melt wi the sun
• tho it were ten thousand mile

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Sound Patterns

• Alliteration
• Red, red rose
• Assonance
• Thee weel
• End Rhyme
• June/tuneI/dryawhile/mile
• Repetition
• till a the seas gang dry
• red, red rose
• fair thee weel

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Structure

• 4, four line stanzas
• ABCB/DEFE/GHGH/IJIJ
• alternating tetrameter and trimeter lines
• (ballad stanzas)
• Iambic

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Historical Context

• Considered a writer ahead of his time
• Age of Enlightenment ending, Age of Romanticism
  beginning
• Enlightenment-stressed reason understanding
• Romanticism-stressed emotion not reason
• Poem demonstrates Romantics faith

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Cultural/Geographical Context

• Alloway, Scotland
• Influenced by poetry of heritage
• Ex. Bonnie lass, Luve, gang dry, w, sands o life

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Criticism

• Franklyn Bliss Snyder
• one of the perfectly cut and polished gems in
  Burnss song collection
• Iain Crichton Smith
• begs too many questions, is too set in one
  inflated mood for us to write like ithow could
  we possiblyspeak of such permanency
• David Daiches
• Writes fondly of depiction of tenderness and
  swagger of young man in love
• Bruce Meyer
• so delicately, so intricately is it wrought that
  the poem is, in itself, a frail rose

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Personal Response

• 1st impression-happy
• After analyzing-depressing
• Belittles power of love
• Good imagery

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Works Cited

• Poetry for Students. Ed. Dwayne D. Hayes.
  Farmington Hills The Gale Group, 2000.
  151-162.
• David Kelly, in an essay for Poetry for Students,
  Gale Group, 2000.
• Bruce Meyer, in an essay for Poetry for
  Students, Gale Group, 2000.
• Crawford, Thomas, Burns A Study of the Poems
  and Songs, CA Stanford University Press, 1960.