Class 11 English Lesson 9: A Red, Red Rose : Reference to the Context

 

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 miles!

The given lines have been extracted from ‘A Red, Red Rose’ by Robert Burns, which expresses the speaker’s profound love for his beloved. The speaker says farewell to her, and at the same time promises that he will return to her even if he has to cover a distance of 10 thousand miles. This promise shows that no obstacles can separate the speaker from her. It seems that the speaker’s powerful love for his beloved makes any earthly hardship insignificant.

b.     What is the theme of the poem?

The poem has the themes of love and passion. The poem is concerned with the speaker’s deep love for his beloved. He praises her beauty and expresses his inestimable love for her. His love will remain forever, no matter what happens. He bids goodbye to her before they separate, and promises he will come to her, even covering the distance of ten thousand miles.

c.      Paraphrase the whole poem into simple prose form.

The poem ‘A Red, Red Rose’ is a 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 miles. He expresses his true love and deep feelings towards his beloved.

d.     Literary devices are tools that enable writers to present their ideas, emotions, and feelings, and also help the readers understand those more profound meanings. Analyse the poem in terms of literary devices such as simile, symbolism, imagery, alliteration, and assonance.

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 a simile. It is an expression that is used to compare an object or a person with something else to make its meaning clear to the readers. There are two similes used in this poem. They are used when the speaker compares his beloved to a red rose and a sweet melody.

Symbolism is another literary device that 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 understood through the 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 to 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 minds. 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 by citing examples of hyperbole used in the poem.

Hyperbole is a literary technique that is used to exaggerate a statement for the sake of emphasis. The poet has used hyperbole 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 dry up. The second one is in the third stanza, where the speaker claims, “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 a refrain? Why is it used in the poem? Explain, citing an example from the poem.

The refrain is a poetic device in poetry that focuses only on repeated lines at a certain distance. It is used to reinforce the main theme 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. 
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