A Red, Red Rose

In his poem, "A Red, Red Rose," Robert Burns closely links love with time. He first compares his "newly sprung" love to a fresh rose in June (2), and then to a melody (3). Time comes up again in the next stanza when he says that his love is as deep as his lover is fair. He claims that he will love her until the seas go dry and the rocks melt with the sun (9). So, Burns suggests that his love is endless, presumably. Next, though, he pronounces: "O I will love thee still, my Dear,/ While the sands o' life shall run" (11). This image of an overturned hourglass gives the meaning of the poem a slightly different tone from the last two comparisons, however.

Why did Burns choose the word "life" rather than the sands of "time"? Using the word "time" wouldn't alter the meter or rhyme scheme, but it would fit better with the other metaphors in the poem because it would extend the idea of a forever love. Instead, Burns puts an end on that endless love by choosing to specify the point at which the sands of his life runs dry as the expiration for his love. I wonder what significance this has, especially considering the fact that in the last stanza, it seems like the lovers have to part for a time. Perhaps "the sands o' life" in this context refer to the sands of all life on earth, rather than just Burns' own? That reading might make the metaphors more compatible.

One explanation for this seeming inconsistency in comparisons is simply that love is such a difficult idea to really pin down. Burns (and everyone else) has such trouble defining the feeling that he even begins with a metaphor right off the bat. He then uses more metaphors to circle around the idea of love, but he never really lands right on it. Is it possible then, we must ask, to actually write about such an abstract feeling in a way that feels straight-up? Further, is it even remotely possible to do so in a way that refers to a generalizable love too? I honestly don't know if a poem that were more frank but more personal would also be more profound. Because then, could we apply Burns' idea of love to our own conception of it?

Here's a video version of the poem (for the sake of understanding a Scottish accent):