“A Red, Red Rose” is a poem of love everlasting—though it can be interpreted ironically, the speaker here seems sincere; he is caught in the deepest throes of his passion, such that he will love his “bonnie lass … Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, / And the rocks melt wi’ the sun.” If we take the speaker at his word, and believe his earnest claims, it would be safe to assume that,...
“A Red, Red Rose” is a poem of love everlasting—though it can be interpreted ironically, the speaker here seems sincere; he is caught in the deepest throes of his passion, such that he will love his “bonnie lass … Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, / And the rocks melt wi’ the sun.” If we take the speaker at his word, and believe his earnest claims, it would be safe to assume that, though the lovers are being rent apart, their love will endure.
The two are being separated because the speaker is going away. Why or where we can only guess, but it does seem that he has every intention of returning to his love—he says “fare thee weel awhile,” indicating an impermanence to his journey, and states hopefully that “I will come again, my luve.” These could be empty words meant to appease a lover stricken at his absence, or it could be hope, or it could have been the plan all along—we have no way of knowing. Perhaps he is a sailor, and is embarking on a long voyage— there is much imagery that recalls the sea in the poem, and what other way would there have been at the time the poem was written to travel “ten thousand mile” than by boat? Maybe the distance is not merely a hyperbole of passion. I like to take this poem at face value, and believe that the speaker truly believes he will return, and that both he and the woman he leaves behind wait for each other, keeping their love intact across the miles.
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