A Red, Red Rose

Question 1

What is the type?

Answer 1

Poem

Question 2

Who wrote it?

Answer 2

Robert Burns

Question 3

What movement is it?

Answer 3

Romanticism

Question 4

What form is it?

Answer 4

A ballad

Question 5

Give quote 1?

Answer 5

“O, my luve’s like a red, red rose,

That’s newly sprung in June.”

Question 6

Analyse quote 1?

Answer 6

Love is spelt phonetically as the Scottish would pronounce it and Robert Burns is from Scotland. It also makes it more musical.
The use of the simile suggests his love is fresh, and just perfectly blossomed.
The repetition of red emphasises the power of his feelings of love, lust, desire and passion.
The choice of the flower rose is cliche as it represents love and Valentine’s Day, but the thorns of a rose foreshadowing the end of the poem.

Question 7

Give quote 2?

Answer 7

“While the sands o’ life shall run.”

Question 8

Analyse quote 2?

Answer 8

The metaphor relates to the sand in an hourglass and time is running out.
He is putting a time limit on their love, adding a bleak tone as he is conscious that it won’t last forever and like the rose, it will wilt away.