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Poetry · Poem

A Red, Red Rose

Robert BurnsEarly British RomanticismPoem
SOURCE TEXT · English original
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 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.
Cultural reading

Reading the poem

In Scots, love begins with rose and melody, expands toward impossible duration, and closes with a promise to return across ten thousand miles.

Language notes

Text and edition

The source text is in Scots. It remains available through the English reading surface while preserving and explicitly identifying its Scots forms.