A Red, Red Rose

By ROBERT BURNS

SCOTLAND

LANGUAGE• 1. Gaelic: A Celtic language closely related to Irish Gaelic,

from which it developed.• 2. Scots A development of a northern form of Old

English which by the fifteenth century had become a distinct language, used by the court and throughout the Lowlands and southern Scotland.

• 3. English Actively adopted by the Scots for formal

speaking and writing, first by their choice of an English translation of the Bible after the Reformation, and then by their efforts to exploit the Union with England in the eighteenth century. Until the middle of this century Scots and Gaelic were forbidden in schools.

LITERARY BACKGROUND

• The early struggles of the Scottish kingdom meant a slow development of the arts. Gaelic culture was primarily oral, and at first dominated by the Irish, and not much that is specifically Scottish survives.

• By the fourteenth century, however, the arts, including literature, emerged, and they were strong in the next century.

• There was a close association with the Church and the court.

• Despite the wars with England, there was a strong English influence on Scottish poetry, especially from Chaucer.

• Much literary activity was suppressed by the Reformation, with its hostility to the frivolity of the arts. For over a century the energy of the Scots went into theological and political dispute, not only on paper. Much poetry was lost and what survives is found in only a few manuscript collections.

• Scott set up a tradition of historical fiction which influenced many writers in other countries.

SCOTLAND IN 18th CENTURY

1702-1714The Reign of Queen Anne

• The most notable event during Anne's reign was The Act of Union (1707), which united England with Scotland into a single kingdom, called Great Britain, and joined their Parliaments. Thereafter the government and the Parliament in London was called British rather than English. Since 1603, the two nations had been loosely associated under the same king.

1714-1727The Reign of George I

• George did not speak English. He soon began to stay away from meetings of his inner council, or cabinet, and left the government in the hands of Sir Robert Walpole, the able Whig leader.

1727-1760The Reign of George II

• George II, who ruled 1727-60, also stayed away from meetings of his ministers. Walpole, who became the first Prime minister of the government, selected his colleagues, and insisted they work with him or leave the cabinet.

1760-1820The Reign of George III

• Determined to "be a king" and quite unfit to be one, George III got rid of William Pitt (prime minister) and put his own Tory (British political party) friends in power.

Jacobitism• On the death of Charles II, his brother, James

VII of Scotland and II of England, succeeded to the throne. (The word Jacobite comes from the Latin for James - Jacobus.) He was a Roman Catholic and a firm believer in the divine right of Kings. Both stances made him so unpopular that in 1688 Parliament invited William of Orange and Mary to rule. In 1689 James VII & II was deposed. In the sixty years that followed there were five attempts to restore James and his descendents to the throne. The supporters of James VII & II were called as “jacobites”.

Scottish Enlightenment• The 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment,

embodied by such world-class influential thinkers as Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith and David Hume, paved the way for the modernization of Scotland. Hutcheson, the father of the Scottish Enlightenment, championed political liberty and the right of popular rebellion against tyranny. Smith, in his monumental Wealth of Nations (1776), advocated liberty in the sphere of commerce and the global economy. Hume developed philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison and thus the U.S. Constitution.

Industrialisation

• In 1765, James Watt invented the separate condenser steam engine and The Industrial Revolution began in Britain, then spread out the world. It was made up of four sets of changes: first, the introduction of new technology; second, the use of new mineral sources of energy; third, a concentration of workers in factories; and fourth, new methods of transportation.

TIMELINE OF THE 18th CENTURY SCOTLAND

• 1707 Act of Union was passed; Scotland formally united with England to form “Great Britain”.

• 1715 First Jacobite rebellion rose; Jacobites were

defeated at the Battle of Sheriffmuir.

JAMES VII Battle of Sheriffmuir

• 1726 First circulating library was opened in Edinburgh.

• 1736 First regular public theatre in Scotland was opened in Edinburgh.

• 1744 The world's first Golf Club was founded.

• 1755 First Scottish census was completed.

• 1768The first edition of the "Encylopaedia Britannica" was published in Edinburgh by William Smellie.

• 1776 Adam Smith published the ‘Wealth of Nations’

and gave birth to modern economic theory and capitalism.

LIFE OF ROBERT BURNS

• Robert Burns was born in 1759 in Alloway, Scotland.

• He had little regular schooling and got much of his education from his father, who taught his children reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history and also wrote for them A Manual Of Christian Belief.

• He was also taught Latin, French, and mathematics by John Murdoch who opened an 'adventure school' in Alloway in 1763.

• By the age of 15, Burns was the principal labourer at Mount Oliphant. During the harvest of 1774, he was assisted by Nelly Kilpatrick, who inspired his first attempt at poetry, O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass.

• He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland.

• He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism.

• As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them.

• In 1796, Robert Burns died in Dumfries at the age of 37.

Robert Burns Mausoleum at St. Michael‘s churchyard in Dumfries.

His notable works• Auld Lang Syne• To a Mouse• A Man's A Man for A' That• Ae Fond Kiss• Scots Wha Hae• Tam O'Shanter• Halloween• The Battle of Sherramuir• A Red, Red Rose

The Analysis of “A Red, Red Rose”

A Red, Red Rose O my Luve's like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June;O my Luve's like the melodieThat’s sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,So deep in luve am I:And I will luve thee still, my dear,Till a’ the seas gang dry:

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:I will luve thee still, my dear,While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only LuveAnd fare thee well, a while!And I will come again, my Luve,Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.

Vocabulary• Thou:An older and informal form of “you”.• Bonnie:Adjective used in Northern England and

Scotland means “attractive”.• Lass:”Lover”.• Thee:Old form of “you” and also “thrive”.• Gang:Originates from Old Norse gangr

"journey".• Fare:”To go” in Old English.

O my Luve's like a red, red roseThat's newly sprung in June;O my Luve's like the melodieThat's sweetly played in tune.

• The poet composes his sweet words of love in the following verses. He loves the young lady beyond measure. Through vivid similes and hyperbolic comparisons he has drawn his love to the spring time rosy hues or to the sweet melodious tunes. His ladylove is as fresh as the newly sprung rose or as sweetly as those of melodious tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,So deep in luve am I;And I will luve thee still, my dear,Till a' the seas gang dry:

• Next the poet addresses directly his lady as bonnie or pretty and asserts his love in hyperbolic terms that he would continue his love still all the seas go dry. The infinite urge of love and its permanency can be copied from these statements.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,And the rocks melt wi' the sun;I will luve thee still, my dear,While the sands o' life shall run.

• The speaker continues his exaggerating mood linked to the previous stanza and states that he will continue to love his lady till the rocks melts way or life leads to desert of death. “Sands o’ life” probably means the passage of time which is compared to the vast desert land.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,And fare thee weel awhile!And I will come again, my Luve,Tho' it ware ten thousand mile.

• In the last stanza the poet says goodbye to his love but swears to return even if he has to travel back ten thousand miles. He tries to imply a deep underlying statement that through the desert of death he will have to travel miles towards uncanny, unknown transitional worlds; he will return for his love.

• Burns's literary output consisted almost entirely of songs, both original compositions and adaptations of traditional Scottish ballads and folk songs.

• He had used the Scottish lowland vernacular to rhyme in about then neighbors and their scandals, their loves and their church.

• Burns touched with his own genius the traditional folk songs of Scotland, transmuting them into great poetry, and he immortalized its countryside and humble farm life.

• It is easy to see that though Burns admired unaffectedly the "classic" writers, his native realism and his melody made him a potent agent in the cause of naturalism and romance.

GÜLÇİN MOZAKOĞLU & DERYA BAYSAL 2-A