Getting inside a poem Think about Whitehead’s general model of

education, as mental and emotional development. There are three stages: First, romance—or arousing your interest in the

subject Next comes precision—or getting a grasp on the

details, some of which might not be clear at first; Then comes generalization—or seeing how an idea

can be applied to other things. According to Whitehead, this leads to further

development, in the same general pattern. AN EXAMPLE: Robert Burns’ song, “A Red Red

Rose”

Robert Burns(25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) a Scottish poet and a

lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a "light" Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these pieces, his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.

"My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose“1794

"My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose" is a 1794 song in Scots by Robert Burns based on traditional sources. The song is also referred to by the title My Love is Like A Red, Red Rose or Red, Red Rose and is often published as a poem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUs-5dHFksw

Bob Dylan1941-

Bob Dylan has named his own greatest inspiration as the Scottish poet Robert Burns.

The American singer-songwriter was asked to say which lyric or verse has had the biggest effect on his life.

He selected the 1794 song A Red, Red Rose, which is often published as a poem, penned by the man regarded as Scotland's national poet.

According to some experts it was based on a song Burns heard a girl singing.

The poet himself, a pioneer of the Romantic movement, referred to it as a 'simple old Scots song which I had picked up in the country'.

Robert Burns: “A Red Red Rose”Modernized Spelling:

A Red, Red Rose By Robert Burns

O my love’s like a red, red roseThat’s newly sprung in June;O my love’s like the melodyThat’s sweetly played in tune.

As fair art though, my bonnie lass,So deep in love am I;And I will love thee still, my dear,Till all the seas go dry.

Till all the seas go dry, my dear,And the rocks melt with the sun;O I will love thee still, my dearWhile the sands of life shall run

And fare-thee well, my only Love!And fare-thee well, awhile!And I will come again, my; Love,Though it were ten thousand miles.

O my love’s like a red, red rose,That’s newly sprung in June:O my love’s like the melodieThat’s sweetly played in tune.

A Red, Red Rose

O my luve's like a red, red roseThat's newly sprung in June;O my luve's like the melodieThat's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie 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;O I will luve thee still, my dearWhile the sands o' life shall run.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!And fare-thee-weel awhile!And I will come again, my luve,Tho' 'twere ten thousand miles.

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.

--Robert Burns

First, the themesThe main theme: an expression of love, a praise of

the lover . . .My love is like a red, red roseThat’s newly sprung in June

The secondary theme: a poem about parting. Their love will last though they are separated

And fare-thee well, my only Love!And fare-thee well, awhile!And I will come again, my; Love,Though it were ten thousand miles.

But now for PRECISION

How does the poem work? It starts with a METAPHOR (technically, a

SIMILE, A is like B). There are many kinds of metaphors, but basically all metaphors POINT OUT A RELATION BETWEEN TWO (or more) THINGS.

One way to make a diagram is to create two columns, with the related things at the top, and below each item, make a list of qualities or attributes that both things have.

A (related to) BA: My LOVE .(qualities)

freshbeautifulsweetpleasant smellhuman face, hands, body long life

conscious gender?. . .. . .

B: Red, Red Rose .(qualities)

freshbeautifulsweetpleasant smellvegetative

thorns fades in 10 days

no brainfertilized by bees?

. . .

. . .When the poem says, “My Love is like a red, red rose,” does that mean, for example

Love has THORNS? My Love is a plant?

My Love is fertilized by bees? My love has no brain?

Is the comparison APPOSITE (Does it FIT)?

Note that the last examples all seem like jokes, but that is only because in metaphors, we usually select the attributes things have in metaphors.

When the qualities or attributes match or fit, we say that the comparison is APPOSITE. It means, the comparison is well placed.

But in some cases, there is IRONY. Anyone who has been in love knows that in a certain sense, Love does have THORNS, it can be BRAINLESS.

Metaphors as a form of reasoning

Any time we relate one thing to another, we are using a kind of relational thinking that is fundamental to our ability to think.

2 + 2 = 4 for example, has the same underlying logical form as A is B.

But in ordinary language (and poetry), the terms are selected so that we can expand and specify what we mean very economically.

“My Love is like a red red rose” gives us a way to add precision to what we feel about love: all it requires is that you think about LOVE and ROSES in intimate detail.

Metaphors as doorways to other connections

We know that “My love is like a red red rose” is meant to praise love (or your lover), not to claim that love is brainless, or that your girlfriend is a vegetable with thorns all over her limbs. But even seeing these ironic possibilities enriches how you think about love.

We could do the same with other examples, like:

“The Hero was like a Lion” (does he lay around all day and tear apart antelopes in the evening? Or do we mean that he is brave and fearless?)

The problem of ambiguity & intention

When we think precisely, we recognize things about the world that we might not have noticed. Look again at Burns’ poem: it’s not just a poem praising his beautiful love: he’s leaving her, going on a long trip, and he hopes that their love will last, though he goes “ten thousand miles”. There’s a lot here to think about. And on this second theme, Love being like a rose doesn’t help much with deciding how long love lasts.

BUT DON’T RUN WILD and suppose that the poem means whatever you may happen to think about love.

The first metaphor is the start of a sequence.

Look at the second couplet: “My love is like a melody That’s sweetly played in tune.” This is how LITERARY REASONING goes. The first metaphor (Love – Rose) is related to the second

metaphor (Love-Melody). This requires us to compare not two things, but two

relations: In what way is the relation between my love and a red rose, like the relation between my love and a melody played in tune?

You can see at once that this can get complicated, but it shows how we can understand poems by letting them take us through a sequence of thoughts.

In this sequence, comparison goes from something more concrete (rose) to something more abstract (melody);

Generalization When we get the idea, or understanding what a

poem means, it includes all of the things it refers to.

IN reading a poem, if you are tempted to say, “this poem means X,” you have gone wrong. Instead, ask, “How do I understand what the poem says and shows? How have my thoughts about certain themes expanded?”

In LITERARY REASONING, the generalization is NOT like a definition or a rule or a simpler statement. It is in the result: you understand the world more precisely. You see other places where the same relation can be seen. You recognize more subtlety, more connections.

Going back, after analysis, to read the poem again

In the BURNS poem, if we go back and read it straight through, we can see that it is not just a way to make love vivid: it is a little drama. There is a lot going on, a lot at stake. The speaker is leaving on a long trip. He wants to say to his love not only how much he loves her, and how sweet she is, but that the love is deeper than appearances: You don’t see a melody in tune. But love, real love, the speaker is saying, is like that

But you also see that there is some worry: why did he write this lovely poem for her? Isn’t it partly so she won’t be like the rose (brainless) and forget him in 10 days? Isn’t it so she won’t hurt him with love’s thorns?