A Red, Red Rose
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 art thou, my bonie 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;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, a while!And I will come again, my Luve,Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile!
Words in this poem
- lass n.
- A youth woman; a girl; a sweetheart. [OE. lasse; prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. llodes girl, fem. of llawd lad. (Lad a youth.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- weel
- A kind of trap or snare for fish, made of twigs. Carew. [Prov. E. weel, weal, a wicker basket to catch eels; prob. akin to willow, and so called as made of willow twigs.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Red, Red Rose is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, Project Gutenberg ebook #1279; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/a-red-red-rose.html, id L03350.
Form and metre
A Red, Red Rose is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.1 syllables.
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A rose · juneA · melodie · tuneA
- 2 -A-A lass · iA · dear · dryA
- 3 ABAB dearA · sunB · dearA · runB
- 4 ABAB luveA · whileB · luveA · mileB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, | 8 | ········ |
| That’s newly sprung in June: | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| O my Luve’s like the melodie, | 8 | ········ |
| That’s sweetly play’d in tune. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| As fair art thou, my bonie lass, | 8 | ········ |
| So deep in luve am I; | 6 | ······ |
| And I will luve thee still, my dear, | 8 | ········ |
| Till a’ the seas gang dry. | 6 | ······ |
| Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, | 8 | ········ |
| And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; | 7 | ······· |
| And I will luve thee still, my dear, | 8 | ········ |
| While the sands o’ life shall run. | 7 | ······· |
| And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And fare-thee-weel, a while! | 6 | ······ |
| And I will come again, my Luve, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile! | 6 | ···/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.