Love Poetry
Poetry Newsletter 1-11-06
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"Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."
–William James (1842-1910)
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Love Letters
A Collection Of Love Letters To Help You…
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Daily Poetry
A Red Red Rose
By Robert Burns
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 played 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 weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it ware ten thousand mile.
—–
While the expression in the first line of this poem has become a cliché, the poem itself can teach us a lot about structure and rhythm. You don’t have to rhyme in poetry to maintain rhythm. Here, Burns uses a few poet’s tricks to create a sense of flow in this work. One of these is our poetic term of the day: anaphora.
Anaphora is the technique of repeating a word or a phrase in the poem for a number of reasons. One, this repetition creates emphasis on this particular subject. As in the poem above, Burns repeats the word “red” in the title, letting the reader know this is no ordinary rose, but a deeper, more passionate symbol of love.
A poet may also use anaphora to create rhythm. Burns has a standard rhyme scheme here that creates a sing song rhythm, but he also uses anaphora to create a sense of unity and flow, as in the lines, “And fare thee weel, my only Luve,/And fare thee weel awhile!”
We use anaphora even in our common speech to emphasize a moment and create drama. Think back to your last argument and you’ll see what I mean.
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Poetry Lesson
Anaphora (uh-NAF-or-uh) is the repetition of the same word or expression a the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or lines for rhetorical or poetic effect.
Example: Abraham Lincoln said, “We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.”