O my luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June; O my luve’s like the melodie That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
As fair are thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I; And I will luve thee still, my Dear, Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear, And the rocks melt wi’ the sun: 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, a while! And I will come again, my luve, Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!
In honor of Burns Night on Jan. 25, I decided to revisit Robert Burns’s poem “A Red, Red Rose,” a 1794 love song written in Scots.Considered the national poet of Scotland, Burns (1759–1796) is perhaps best known for composing “Auld Lang Syne” and writing numerous songs and lyrics in Scots and English. However, as is the case with many of his other works, “A Red, Red Rose” isn’t composed of Burns’s original lyrics and imagery, but rather, as Burns wrote in a letter to Alexander Cunningham, is “a simple old Scots song which I had pickt up in this country.” In fact, many of its lines can be found in other traditional Scottish songs: “The Hornfair Garland” (composed before 1780) has lines similar to the third stanza of Burns’ song, and “The Two Constant Lovers” (circa 1690) shares the language of the fourth stanza.
One may argue that Burns is scarcely to be credited with the song at all. However, as Burns’s biographer Franklyn B. Snyder pointed out in “The Life of Robert Burns,” “The electric magnet is not more unerring in selecting iron from a pile of trash than was Burns in culling the inevitable phrase or haunting cadence from the thousands of mediocre possibilities.” Burns’s genius lay in his ability to synthesize together pre-existing poetic elements, integrating the traditional strains of his people into a composition that beats in time with the heart of Scottish culture.
A Musical Analysis
The lyrics have been set to numerous tunes since their publication. Burns set the lyrics to the melody “Major Graham’s Strathspey” by fiddler Neil Gow, though today the work is popularly set to the tune “Low Down in the Broom.” By his choice of melody, Burns, was attempting to bring out the “wild” nature of the song, since the lyrics take on different emphases under the various tunes.Kirsteen McCue of the University of Glasgow explores the musical history of the piece in an article titled: “‘O My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose’: Does Burns’s Melody Really Matter.” In her article, McCue noted, when the words are set to “Major Graham’s Strathspey,” the words’ emphasis leaves no doubt about who is the most important person in the poem. She wrote:
Dr. Kirsteen McCue of the University of Glasgow explores the musical history of the piece in an article titled: “‘O My Luve’s Like a Red, Red Rose’: Does Burns’s Melody Really Matter.” In her article, McCue
“The depth of his love (deep) and its longevity (still) are also brought out by the melody. And the focus of his ardent love is also, naturally, frequently emphasised, but with a number of different images which simply articulate how important she is to him--from the physical immediacy of the colour of the rose and the sound of the melody to the expanses of time and space reflected in the choice of seas, rocks and miles.”
McCue observed that “Low down in broom,” while a smoother melody, doesn’t match the description of “simple and wild” as like the irregularity of the “Major Graham’s Strathspey” version does. It’s this “wild” aspect that’s such a defining characteristic of Burns’s poetry, suggestive of his works’ natural, country roots. Walt Whitman wrote:
“Yes, there is something about Burns peculiarly acceptable to the concrete, human points of view. He poetizes work-a-day agricultural labor and life, (whose spirit and sympathies, as well as practicalities, are much the same everywhere,) and treats fresh, often coarse, natural occurrences, loves, persons ... in their own born atmosphere, laughter, sweat, unction.”
The the poem opens with a combination: nature at the height of bursting with new color and resplendence of the rose “newly sprung in June,” with the gentle, lilting simplicity of the song “sweetly play’d in tune.” This pairing corresponds to the blend of the speaker’s boasting about his love’s depth and endurance mingled with the tender, gentler sentiment in his promise of return.
The third stanza defies time, expressing the lover’s promise of love til the end of the earth: “Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear/ And the rocks melt wi’ the sun.” In the fourth stanza, he expresses that he‘ll come from the ends of the earth: “Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!” The speaker can safely promise that his love will last a lifetime, since sea and stone shall endure long after the sand is at the bottom of his life’s hourglass. As he says in his promise, he’ll love “While the sands o’ life shall run.”
Simple and wild, bold and gentle, time and space—Burns places these elements in tension in his poem to paint a vibrant tableau of love in a natural setting. In their imposing vastness, the two natural elements of rock and sea, contrast with the small-scale majesty of the rose. The deep red of the rose, like the depths of the sea, paints an image of the speaker’s love just as effectively as these grand elements of nature.
The rose captures a particular point in time that captures love at its height of strength and life. Just as the poem intertwines numerous traditional songs, Burns weaves these images together to create a tapestry of fiercely enduring love, a work which at its core is essentially human. It strikes a chord not only with Scottish sentiment, but also resonates universally within the human heart.
