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Chapter 2 A Red, Red Rose
Class 11 English
Exercise
Robert Burns
Summary
The poem “A Red, Red Rose” is a lyrical ballad which was
composed by Scotland national poet Robert Burns. It describes the
speaker’s deep love for his beloved and promises that his love will
last longer than human life and even the planet itself remaining
fresh and constant forever.
In this poem, the speaker describes his beloved with images that
are beautiful, fresh, and charming as a flower that has just
bloomed. The love is as sweet as a beautiful song played by a skilled
musician. Meanwhile, it also represents a new relationship with all
the freshness and the excitement but the relationship doesn’t need
to be long-lasting. Then, however, the speaker goes on to
emphasize how long this love will last. Here, the speaker uses three
images to measure these feelings of love.
According to him, it will
last till the seas and oceans going dry, till the rocks melt and the
earth has decayed. His love will endure until the end of human life.
In the final stanza, he concludes by saying goodbye to his beloved
as if the speaker is planning to leave on a journey. His beloved
doesn’t need to worry because the speaker promises to return even
if the journey covers a very long distance or takes a very long time.
With time, the beloved will likely be older, less youthful, and
perhaps less beautiful but the speaker’s feelings for her will remain
constant. Here, the speaker focuses on pure love or spiritual love
that never fades with time whereas youth and beauty end with time
and its temporary attraction.
A Red, Red Rose – Complete Exercise
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. To which two things does the speaker compare his love in the
first stanza?
Answer: The two things to which the speaker compares his love in
the first stanza are red rose and melody (music).
b. What does the speaker promise in the second and third stanzas?
Answer: The speaker promises to love his beloved until the earthly
seas have become dry, rocks have melted by the heat of the sun and
human life has ended in the second and third stanzas.
c. What imagery does he use in his promise, and why do you think
he uses such language?
Answer: He uses the imagery of dry seas, melted rocks, ended
human life in the second and third stanza and an image of a long
journey in the fourth stanza. I think he uses such language because
his love is so deep and true for his beloved.
d. In the last stanza, what event is about to happen by mentioning
the number of miles?
Answer: In the last stanza, the event of reconciliation is about to
happen by mentioning the number of miles.
e. Which image in the poem do you find the most memorable or
surprising and why?
Answer: The most memorable or surprising image I find in the
poem is of the dry seas throughout the world, because the
speaker’s promise is managed in a very interesting way.
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!
Answer: This beautiful promising line has been taken from Robert
Burns love poem ‘ A Red, Red Rose. We find this line at the end of
the fourth stanza. Here, the speaker is in deep love with his beloved. He is making a promise with his beloved by saying that no
matter how long the journey is he will return to her life.
b. What is the theme of the poem?
Answer: The overriding theme of “A Red, Red Rose” is the power of
love. In this poem, the speaker wishes to emphasize not just the
love he has for his beloved, but the strength of that love and its
power to endure in the most trying of circumstances. The speaker is
so deeply in love with his “bonnie lass”—or beautiful young
woman—that he pledges his love to her from now until the seas run
dry.
c. Paraphrase the whole poem into simple prose form.
Answer: The poem ‘A Red, Red Rose’ is the poem 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 music. He wants to express that he is in deep and pure
love with his beloved. The poet will love her till the seas are dried
and rocks are melted by the heat of the sun. He promises to meet
her even if he has to walk ten thousand mile. He expresses his true
love and deep feeling towards his beloved.
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.
Answer: The poet employs several literary devices like simile,
symbolism, imagery, alliteration, and assonance to show the
beauty of his beloved and the power of his love.
The first literary tool used in the poem is simile.
It is an expression
which is used to compare an object or a person with something else
to make its meaning clean to the readers. There are two similes
used in this poem. They are used when the speaker compares his
beloved with a red rose and sweet melody.
Symbolism is another literary device which is used to signify ideas
and qualities giving them symbolic meaning. Here the poet has
used ‘rose’ as a symbol of love.
Imagery is a distinct representation of something that can be
understand through five senses. Robert has used visual imagery in
the poem such as a red rose. There is a visual picture of a red rose
in our mind when the speaker compares his beloved with a red
rose. When he equates her to the sweet melody, auditory imagery
is used. To convey the intensity of his affection, he then switches to
hyperbolic images, by expressing that he will love her until the seas
become dry and the rocks melt in the sun. We can view the world of
dry seas and melted rocks in our mind.
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line
such as /l/ and /r/ in “O my Love is Like a red, red rose.”
Assonance is a literary device in which the repetition of vowel
sounds occurs in the same line. In the line ‘And I will love thee still,
my dear’, the vowel sound /i/ is repeated.
e. What is hyperbole? Explain its purpose citing examples of
hyperbole used in the poem.
Answer: Hyperbole is a literary technique which is used to
exaggerate a statement for the sake of emphasis. The poet has used
hyperbola 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 dries
up. The second one is in the third stanza where the speaker
claimed, “And the rocks melt wi’ the sun”. Here, the speaker
seems to be exaggerating his emotions in these lines to illustrate
his desire to love her forever.
f. What is refrain? Why is it used in the poem? Explain citing an
example from the poem.
Answer: Refrain is a poetic device in poetry that focuses only on
repeated lines at a certain distance. It is used to reinforce the main
them on point of a poem. It is also used to emphasize something
and to produce rhythm in the poem as well. We find a refrain here
in this poem in the second, third, and fourth stanzas and they are
as follows:
• And I will love thee still, my dear
• Till a’ the seas gang dry
• And fare thee weel
Reference beyond the text
a. What kind of love is expressed in “A Red, Red Rose”?
Answer: In this poem, A Red, Red Rose, the poet has expressed his
romantic and inestimable love for his beloved. He promises to love
his beloved until the earthly seas have become dry, rocks have
melted by the heat of the sun and human life has ended and makes
it clear that he will love her till his last breath.
b. Do you think that love has power? Why do the poets compose
poems addressing their beloved?
Answer: Yes, I think that love has power. In fact I consider love as a
most powerful thing that exists in the entire universe. Love is the
thing that bounds people and keep them together. Love can
sometimes lead people towards perfection whereas it may bring
destructive results too. Most of the poets compose their poems
addressing their beloved because poem is the beautiful and best
medium to express the feeling of a person. Expressing love in poem
adds more beauty to the story than in another form. Thus the poets
compose poems addressing their beloved.
c. Poetry is the expression of feeling and emotions. Explain.
Answer: Most of the literary works of extraordinary merit have been
written through the means of poetry. Poetry is the representation of
thoughts and feelings that enables people to express themselves in
writing. Poetry is a perfect way to express love, emotions,
imagination, and exchange ideas and thoughts with others. Poetry
holds power to explain those intimate moments of the life of
human beings. It’s not only a joy that poets can relate to their
verses, but also grief, despair, grief, pain, doubt, hatred, love,
compassion, desire, praise, faith, respect, and hope. Therefore,
poetry can be taken as the expression of feelings and emotions.
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