A Red, Red Rose

Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose” consists of 16 lines and is separated into four stanzas (groupings) of four lines each. These groupings of four lines are known as quatrains. The first two quatrains feature a rhyme scheme where the first and third lines do not rhyme, but the second and fourth lines do. For example, in the first two stanzas, “June” (Line 2) rhymes with “tune” (Line 4), and “I” (Line 6) rhymes with “dry” (Line 8). Therefore, the rhyme scheme would be represented as ABCB.

However, this rhyme scheme slightly changes in the last two stanzas. In the final two quatrains, the first and third lines end with the same word, while the second and fourth lines rhyme. For example, in the third stanza, the first and third lines both end with “dead” (Lines 9, 11) while the other two lines rhyme “sun” (Line 10) and “run” (Line 12). In the final, fourth stanza, the first and third lines have “luve” at the end (Lines 13, 15), while the second and fourth lines rhyme “awhile” (Line 14) and “mile” (Line 16). Therefore, the rhyme scheme for these last two stanzas would be represented as ABAB.

The rhymes that do occur in this poem are all masculine rhymes, since they all rhyme on the final, stressed syllable (for example, “awhile” [Line 14] and “mile” [Line 16]). The alternating rhyme and word repetition assists the flow of the poem, allowing it to easily transition from line to line and, when recited, to roll off the tongue. The bouncy rhythm provided by the rhyme also makes the poem catchy and pleasing to the audience’s ear, similar to a nursery rhyme.

As far as meter, some lines are written in iambic tetrameter or iambic trimeter. An iamb is a poetic unit, or foot, consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. For example, the second stanza alternates between lines containing four of these units and lines containing three of these units: “So fair art thou, my bonnie lass, / So deep in luve am I;” (Lines 5-6). While most lines alternate between a longer line with more poetic feet and a shorter line with fewer, there is occasionally an extra syllable that throws off the strict iambic meter. For example, in the first and third lines of the poem, the inclusion of “O” adds an additional unstressed beat to the lines: “O my Luve is like a red, red rose” (Line 1). Something similar occurs in Lines 10 and 12: “And the rocks melt wi’ the sun” (Line 10). These additional unstressed syllables, however, don’t break up the sing-song, upbeat rhythm of the poem too much. The “bounciness” of the rhythm gives the poem an overall uplifting tone and mood.

An occasional line features either an extra stressed syllable or an inversion of the iambic stress pattern. Line 11 switches to trochees rather than iambs, meaning that it switches from an unstressed/stressed pattern to a pattern where a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable: “I will love thee still, my dear” (Line 11). The line ends with an extra stress as well. This shift in meter puts the emphasis on the lover and his beloved and the passion that they share with one another. The final line features an additional stress after the initial iamb: “Though it were ten thousand mile” (Line 16). As in the previous example, this extra stress thrown into the rhythmic, iambic pattern emphasizes the extent, the immensity, of the speaker’s love. As seen through these examples, whenever an extra stress is added, there is a purpose and significance behind it.