Figures of Speech in “A Red, Red Rose”

开篇：润墨网以专业的文秘视角，为您筛选了一篇Figures of Speech in “A Red, Red Rose”范文，如需获取更多写作素材，在线客服老师一对一协助。欢迎您的阅读与分享！

中图分类号：H059 文献标识：A 文章编号：1009-4202(2011)07-000-02

Abstract “A Red, Red Rose”, one of Robert Burns’ masterpieces, is famous for its beautiful language. Within only 16 lines, a variety of rhetorical figures, simile, repetition, hyperbole, alliteration, inversion, metaphor, parallelism, verbal symbol included, are used to offer the most wonderful interpretation of the eternal theme ――love.

Key words “A Red, Red Rose” figures of speech

Robert Burns, a best-known Scottish poet, is chiefly remembered for his works written in Scots language with a wide rang of subjects, natural beauty, and pure emotion. Among his masterpieces, “A red, Red rose” is the most famous one. Short as this poem is in size, we utterly touch by the poet’s deepest affection to his love. After reading the 16 lines several times, we can easily find that the successful description can be attributed to the use of various figures of speech.

According to the book English Rhetoric, “Figurative language speaks indirectly and involves expressed or implied comparisons of some sort. Such comparisons are called figures of speech, and the language in which they are expressed is called figurative language”. In that 16-line poem, the poet uses many kinds of rhetorical methods to express his strong emotion to his love, arousing readers’ sympathy. I will show some instances as follow.

The first one is simile. As Samuel Johnson puts it, “A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject, must show it to be understanding in a clearer view and display it to the fancy with greater dignity.” As one of the most common figures, simile is used in this poem on many occasions. “O, my Luve’s like a red, red rose, /That’s newly sprung in June.” At the very beginning, comparing his lover to a red rose, a symbol of love and passion, the poet declares his love right at the outset. Meanwhile, from this comparison, we find that in the poet’s heart, the appearance of his lover is as delicate and charming as the red rose, and “the newly springing rose” implies that the beautiful girl is full of youth and vigor, which gives the readers such a romantic mental picture――“He met his right girl at the right time.” Then, “O, my Luve’s like the melodie, / That´s sweetly play’d in tune.”his lover is compared to “the sweet melody”. By the comparison of his sweetheart and the sweet melody, these lines not only vividly show both the girl’s sweet sound and her gentle and soft nature, but also imply their harmonious relationship as glorious as that sweet melody. “Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, /And the rocks melt wi’ the sun, /O, I will luve thee still, my dear, /While the sands o’ life shall run.” His comparison of the love to the eternal things――sea’s going dry, rock’s melting, helps the readers to realize his strong emotion and persistence. Even the seas may run dry and the rocks crumble, but his heart will always remain true to her.

“In rhetoric, the iteration or repeating of the same words, or of the meaning in different words, for the purpose of making a deeper impression in the audience”, another common-used figure of speech in this poem is repetition. Some of them are repeated words, others are phrases and sentences. Firstly, the poet makes a repetition of the word “red” in the title to emphasize how tender and beautiful his lover is. Reading this poem, we can easily find that “Luve” appears in the poem seven times. In some cases, it means “lover”; others it symbolizes “affection”; while in the clause “And I will luve thee still, my dear,” it functions as a verb “love”. Such repetition makes the poem a coherent whole and deepens the motif at the same time. Meanwhile, the repetition of the words “my dear”, “my luve” located at the end of the sentences, not only strengthens the emotion, but also makes the poem rhythmical. Take this part as an example, “Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, /And the rocks melt wi’ the sun, /O, I will luve thee still, my dear, /While the sands o’ life shall run.”Different as the words are, the same meaning it expresses, making a deeper impression on the readers of the poet’s eternal affection to his lover. Besides, the repeated words “fare thee weel” is employed on purpose to express a strong feeling of the unwillingness of parting from each other. To sum up, the repetition does beatify the language as well as strengthens the theme.

Hyperbole, which gently exaggerates the truth, is also frequently used in the literary works in the way of expressing one’s emotion. For instances: “Hamlet: I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers, / Could not, with all their quantity of love, /Make up my sum” (Shakespeare: Hamlet);“For she was beautiful――her beauty made/ The bright world dim, and everything beside / Seemed like the fleeting image of a shade.” (P. B Shelly: The Witch of Atlas); “Polly, I love you. You are the whole world to me and the moon and the stars and the constellation of out space.”(Max Shulman: Love is a Fallacy). Exploring this poem, we may find some parallels too exact to list: “Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear, /And the rocks melt wi’ the sun, /O, I will luve thee still, my dear, /While the sands o’ life shall run.”It seems eternal but impossible that the seas went dry, the rocks melt, and life kept running. Here the author expresses his strong emotion as these eternal but impossible things exaggeratedly to show his determination of pursuing love, which touches many readers.

Besides the three rhetorical devices above, there are alliteration, and inversion in this poem. I will illustrate some common forms of them briefly. In the first line “O, my luve’s like a red, red rose,”, the poet makes a great use of alliteration, including “luve/like”，and “red/rose”, giving an effect of beauty with the repetition of the sounds――/l/ and /r/.In the second part of the poem, the “As fair art thou, my bonie lass,/So deep in luve am I,”is inversed. With the inversion, the word “deep” is emphasized, showing the poet’s strong emotion to his love effectively. In addition, metaphor, parallelism, verbal symbol and some other rhetorical means can also be found in this 16-line poem, which are of importance to beauty the language and express the theme.

In a conclusion, “in broad sense rhetoric includes: choosing good words and expressions, using rhetorical devices, planning what is to be said and written and polishing what’s planned and written.”It is Robert Burns who takes such a full advantage of the figures of speech, including simile, repetition, hyperbole, alliteration, inversion, metaphor, parallelism, verbal symbol and so on in these only 16 lines, making language figurative and effective and giving readers an fresh and deep impression of the eternal theme――love, helping readers to understand the author’s strong emotion, as well as arousing readers’ sympathy. Marked by the purity of emotions, freshness of expression and fluency of the language, this short beautiful poem is still sung by people.

Bibliography：

[1]Selected Readings in British Literature, written by Wang Shouren.

[2]English Rhetoric, written by Wang Yulong, ZhangYu, Zhang Deyu.

[3] Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language.

[4] Comparative Study of English Figures of Speech, written by Liu Lamei.