In "Oh, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose" by Robert Burns, the poem centralizes the expressiveness of a man, lasting love for someone. The theme of this poem conveys the power of lasting love and how it can affect a person's feelings. In this case, falling in love tends to provoke thoughts focused only on a significant other. Throughout the poem, we analyze Burns' lines and experience a man's deep love for his partner. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Traditionally in a Scottish song form, Burns displays a common iambic meter with four-line stanzas, known as quatrains. The rhyme follows the ABCB pattern for the first two stanzas, followed by the ABAB pattern for the last two stanzas. Starting with the title “Oh, my love is like a red, red rose,” readers can interpret so much meaning through the use of similes and imagery. When thinking about love, one of the many thoughts would be associated with a red rose. Roses are a symbol of love, desire, lust, passion and even a new beginning (since roses, like any flower, bloom into a beautiful, vibrant flower). While pink might be the first word that readers become captivated by, love is another word that commands attention. Love, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, “is a strong feeling or affection,” or “a person or thing that one loves.” As any reader will know, love can be expressed in writing, such as songs, notes, ballads, sonnets or poems. In this case, Burns raises the true definition of expressing love in poetry. The first verse opens with a simile: "Oh, my love is like a red, red rose", the poet compares his love for a woman with a rose, the most iconic symbol of love and beauty. By starting the poem with “Oh,” it creates a more dramatic or hyperbolic statement in which the speaker longs for his lover. Without the addition of an “Oh” at the beginning of the sentence, the poem would not be seen as dramatic as it might be made by the speaker. Burns uses the repetition of “red” twice in this line to echo his undying love for a woman with the vibrancy of a rose. Despite the popular belief that rose is traditionally associated with red, the color is confirmed to represent "deep love, passion or desire". Finally, the appearance of “red” and “pink” alliteration shows a romantic and passionate tone, as the letter r rolls off the tongue. Finally, note that the word rose is singular, accentuating a rose connotes the meaning of being for a woman. The diction, in this line, indicates the affection shown to the narrator's lover. When readers move on to the second line, an image of a rose follows “It just came out in June.” Roses generally do not flower in summer, however the rose mentioned here by Burns is the dog rose which only flowers in summer. You see, Burns is personifying a red rose for the speaker's blossoming love that appears fresh and new. This is followed by another simile, stating, “My love is like the melody / Is played sweetly in tune.” The effective use of two similes in a stanza demonstrates the speaker's intense love, in which he shows a comparison to a song or melody. Overall, the purpose of a song is to make the audience feel better through the unique lyrics and sounds that are heard. Therefore, comparing a person's love to a song describes the feeling of being happy when listening to it with someone special. Therefore, Burns compares love to a euphonious song that idealizes the fullness of the speaker's love. Subsequently, the poet does not add anything elsesimiles, perhaps simply to introduce the general tone of the poem in an affectionate and joyful way. In the second stanza, the speaker says “o fair art thou, my fair girl,” moving from expressing his feelings to recognizing his “fair girl” as “fair” or beautiful. Since many people do not know what “bonnylass” is, the Oxford Dictionary defines this unique Scottish word as “a beautiful or attractive woman,” accentuating the speaker's charming words to compliment his lover. The diction in this verse is quite different, as the audience might expect, since Burns lived in the eighteenth century, so his words refer to that time period (hence words like “art” and “thou.” After his compliment, the speaker he returns to the quantity he is deeply in love with by saying “I am so deeply in love / And I will love you again, my dear.” It is important to note the diction here, as “love” is used as a verb here, rather than a noun in the first line emphasizes that he is talking about the woman he loves and cares for. The distinction between these may indicate that the woman is more important than the idea of "love", of which he conveys emotions due to his beloved this, Burns uses the words "my darling" and "my fair girl" to demonstrate that effective use of the speaker's lover's apostrophe is as significant as what Burns is comparing this stanza to with the speaker declaring that his love will last "Until the seas run dry." Gang, here, means “to go or proceed”. So, the speaker is saying that his love for this woman will continue forever, until the seas run dry, which is unlikely to happen, implying that it is certain that it will last a long time. The amount of passion and assertiveness the speaker projects creates another level of love by repeating and emphasizing his devotion to his love unlike any other type of love he has ever experienced. In the next stanza, Burns repeats “Till a' the seas band dry, my dear” to address his lover, this time, and exaggerate how much the speaker will only love her. Through the use of repetition, the speaker ensures that the his lover understands how long his affection will last, emphasizing how important it is to convey his message. He follows with “And the rocks melt in the sun.” This line is a continuation of the last line, in which he is given another ending scenario life to emphasize that he will not leave her, even if life ends. The verse is clear in showing hyperbole to indicate that his love for her will never diminish, as repeatedly indicated in the eleventh verse: "And I will love you again, my dear" . This time, he talks about his beloved in a different perspective using the word “you,” or in this case, you with more impact in targeting the one person he talks about. As he ends the last line of the verse with “. as the sands of life shall roll,” he, once again, hyperbolizes that he will love her until life's end. This phrase in particular is the most interesting to underline, because it metaphorizes an hourglass, alluding to the amount of time left to live, as a unique measure of time and life. Of all the stanzas, this one effectively describes the speaker's desperate affection for his beloved. In the final stanza, the narrator addresses his lady again: “And farewell, my only love! / And goodbye a little.” Burns uses repetition quite often in this poem, especially in the last stanza, he repeats "And goodbye" - once to say goodbye, twice to address the lover's presence. To break down the meaning further, the speaker is saying that no matter how far away he is, he will be ephemeral until he returns for a lifetime surrounded by their love. Connecting it to the last two, 103(1), 38-59.
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