A Red, Red Rose
"A Red, Red Rose" is a 1794 song in Scots by Robert Burns based on traditional sources. The song is also referred to by the title "(Oh) My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose" and is often published as a poem. Many composers have set Burns' lyric to music, but it gained worldwide popularity set to the traditional tune "Low Down in the Broom"
A Red, Red Rose
Sources[edit]
Burns is best understood as a compiler or a redactor of "A Red, Red Rose" rather than its author. F.B. Snyder wrote that Burns could take "childish, inept" sources and turn them into magic, "The electric magnet is not more unerring in selecting iron from a pile of trash than was Burns in culling the inevitable phrase or haunting cadence from the thousands of mediocre possibilities."[4]
One source that is often cited for the song is a Lieutenant Hinches' farewell to his sweetheart, which Ernest Rhys asserts is the source for the central metaphor and some of its best lines.[5] Hinches' poem, "O fare thee well, my dearest dear", bears a striking similarity to Burns's verse, notably the lines which refer to "ten thousand miles" and "Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear".[6]
A ballad originating from the same period entitled "The Turtle Dove" also contains similar lines, such as "Though I go ten thousand mile, my dear" and "Oh, the stars will never fall down from the sky/Nor the rocks never melt with the sun".[7]: 275 Of particular note is a collection of verse dating from around 1770, The Horn Fair Garland, which Burns inscribed, "Robine Burns aught this buik and no other".[8] A poem in this collection, "The loyal Lover's faithful promise to his Sweet-heart on his going on a long journey" also contains similar verses such as "Althou' I go a thousand miles" and "The day shall turn to night, dear love/And the rocks melt in the sun".[7]: 276–7
An even earlier source is the broadside ballad "The Wanton Wife of Castle-Gate: Or, The Boat-mans Delight", which dates to the 1690s.[9] Midway through the ballad, Burns' first stanza can be found almost verbatim: "Her Cheeks are like the Roses, that blossoms fresh in June; O shes like some new-strung Instrument thats newly put in tune." The provenance for such a song is likely medieval.[10]
Music[edit]
Urbani[edit]
Pietro Urbani was the first composer to score Burns' poem in 1794. Like most of the pieces in Scots Songs, it is orchestrated for a small chamber ensemble of 2 violins, viola, and harpsichord. Unlike most other settings of the poem, Urbani puts it in 3
4, which creates certain metrical problems that results in missplaced stresses. At one point, Urbani even has to add a word to fit his chosen meter. Though his is the original setting of "Red, Red Rose", it is little known and rarely performed.[1]: 72
Legacy[edit]
The title of the 1935 short story "Till A'the Seas" by H. P. Lovecraft and R. H. Barlow comes from the first line of the third stanza of "A Red, Red Rose".
A Swedish version of the poem, "Min älskling (du är som en ros)", was made famous by Evert Taube in his 1943 book Ballads in Bohuslän.
A free Chinese translation was made by Su Manshu.[23]
In an ad campaign for HMV, Bob Dylan said A Red, Red Rose was an inspiration for his creative life.[24]