Roses are red

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

This article is about the poem. For other uses, see Roses Are Red.

William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Roses are red, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose

Roses are red can refer to a specific poem, or a class of doggerel poems inspired by that poem. The poem is:

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet,

And so are you.

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

Roses are red,

And my love is true.

[edit] Origin

Most believe that the original source of the poem were the following lines written in 1590 by Sir Edmund Spenser from his epic The Faerie Queene (Book Three, Canto 6, Stanza 6)[1]:

It was vpon a Sommers shynie day,

When Titan faire his beames did display,

In a fresh fountaine, farre from all mens vew,

She bath'd her brest, the boyling heat t'allay;

She bath'd with roses red, and violets blew,

And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.

A nursery rhyme significantly closer to the modern cliche Valentine's Day poem can be found in Gammer Gurton's Garland, a collection of English nursery rhymes. (1783)

Roses are red, diddle, diddle

Lavender's blue

If you will have me, diddle, diddle

I will have you.

Victor Hugo was likely familiar with Spenser, but may not have known the English nursery rhyme when, in 1862, he published the novel, Les Miserables. Hugo was a poet as well as a novelist, and within the text of the novel are many songs. One sung by the character, Fantine contains this refrain, in the 1862 English translation:

We will buy very pretty things

A-walking through the faubourgs.

Violets are blue, roses are red,

Violets are blue, I love my loves.

The last two lines in the original French are:

Les bleuets sont bleus, les roses sont roses,

Les bleuets sont bleus, j'aime mes amours.

(Les Miserables, Fantine, Book Seven, Chapter Six)[2]

[edit] Variations

It is likely most variations of this poem are satirical or humorous, as shown in the following extract from country singer Roger Miller's hit song Dang Me:

They say roses are red

And violets are purple,

Sugar is sweet

And so is maple surple.

Another variation is Scandinavian pop group Aqua's single "Roses Are Red":

Roses are red and

Violets are blue

Honey is sweet,

but not as sweet as you.

Other, somewhat funny, variations can include:

The roses are wilting,

The violets are dead,