My Love is Like a Red Red Rose by Robert Burns

Some towering genuises have put words to paper, but I don't think that Robert Burns was one of them.

No, no, hold on! Come back!

The thing is, I don't really think that towering was what Robert Burns was about. Yes, he wrote about politics (and got into trouble for being too loud in his support of the French Revolution) but it's for Burns' poetry that he's honoured throughout the world.

If Jane Austen's genius was for painting life on a little bit of ivory, then Robert Burns' genius was for conjuring up life in his songs.

O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That’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 Luve
And fare thee well, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.

Is there a more tender or a more hopeful love song in the world? It certainly charmed Robert Schumann, who wrote a setting for it; and yet another Robert, Bob Dylan, said that it had been his greatest creative influence.

(Gosh, thank heavens for Roberts!)

Here's My Love is like a Red Red Rose, sung most beautifully by Karen Matheson.

May love and roses sweeten your day.

Word To Use Today: rose. This word has hardly changed for thousands of years. It probably comes from the Greek rhodon.