Thursday, October 09, 2008

A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns (1794)

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 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;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ ’twere ten thousand mile!


I print this here because Bob Dylan has very recently stated this poem was one of the driving forces behind his first songwriting - and you can hear the influence in his folk material. It's always worth going back to a poem so near to song, just to refresh our ears for the contemporary scene which plays with the border between poetry & prose a lot.

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