The rose has been grown and appreciated for its fragrance and beauty since ancient times

and today is the most popular and widely cultivated garden flower in the world.

The plants usually require severe pruning, which must be adapted to the intended use of the flowers. Most rose varieties are grown by budding on an understock (lower portion of a plant) propagated from seeds or cuttings.

Scientific classification: Roses make up the family Rosaceae of the order Rosales. The representative genus is Rosa. Hybrid perpetuals, or remontant roses, are derived mainly from the hybrid species Rosa borboniana; polyantha roses from the hybrid species Rosa rehderana; tea roses from Rosa odorata; and China roses from Rosa odorata and Rosa chinensis.

The more than 20,000 varieties of cultivated rose are carefully bred for qualities such as number and shape of petals. Pictured here are (top, left to right) Mrs. John Laing (perpetual, blooming in early summer and again in fall), Just Joey (hybrid tea, with just a few large blossoms on each plant), Iceberg (floribunda, a cluster-flowered bush rose), Eglanteria (wild, with a thorny stem and a single layer of five petals in each flower); (bottom) Peace (hybrid tea), Old Blush China (China rose, blooming once a season), the Fairy (polyantha, a leafy shrub with clusters of dwarf blossoms), and Mme. George Staechelin (climbing, its many-blossomed arching vines trainable to trellises and fences).

Rose Harvesting, Bulgaria Attar of roses, the oil extracted from rose petals for the manufacture of perfume, is perhaps Bulgarias most famous export. Rose harvesting, which occurs in May and June, is done only early in the morning, when the petals contain their highest concentration of oil.

Robert Burns (175996), Scottish poet and writer of traditional Scottish folk songs, whose works are known and loved wherever the English language is read.

Burns' best work was written in Scots, a northern dialect of English spoken by Scottish peasants. His poetry revived the English lyric, explored the literary forms and legends of folk culture, and used the language really spoken by the common folk. Tradition says this meditation on the destiny and plans of mice and men was really composed as Burns turned up a mouse's nest with his plow..

Type of Work and Year of Composition "Red Red Rose" is a love poem written to be sung. Robert Burns based it on a folk version of a song he heard on his travels. Burns completed the poem in 1794 in an English dialect called Scots for publication in collections of traditional Scottish ballads.

Red, Red Rose By Robert Burns Written in 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 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.

1
O my Luves like a red, red rose, Thats newly sprung in June: O my Luves like the melodie, Thats sweetly playd in tune.
The speaker presents two similes, the first comparing his love to a rose and the second comparing his love to a melody. The speaker also uses repetition to echo his sentiments--my luve's like in lines 1 and 3; that's newly and that's sweetly (pronoun, verb, and adverb combinations) in lines 2 and 4.

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. The speaker addresses the young lady as bonnie (pretty). Bonnie is derived from the French word bon (good). In the last line of the stanza, a' means all and gang means go. This line introduces to the poem hyperbole, a figure of speech that exaggerates.

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. The speaker links the first line of the third stanza with the last line of the second stanza by repetition. The speaker continues hyperbole in the second and fourth lines. He also again relies on repetition in the third line by repeating the third line of the second stanza.

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! The speaker again addresses his beloved, noting that though he must leave her for a while he will return for her even if he must travel ten thousand miles. Repetition occurs in the first and second lines, and hyperbole occurs in the last line. Fare-thee-weel means fare thee well.

Format Burns wrote the poem in four quatrains (four-line stanzas) with the following characteristics: End Rhyme In each stanza, the second and fourth lines end with masculine rhyme. End Rhyme also occurs in the first and third lines of the third and fourth stanzas.

Meter Most of the longer lines are in iambic tetrameter; the shorter ones, in iambic trimeter. Iambic tetrameter is an eightsyllable line with alternating pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables. Each pair makes up a foot so that each tetrameter line has four feet, as in line 5 :
......1...............2.............3..............4...... AS FAIR | art THOU | my BON, | nie LASS

Iambic trimeter is a six-syllable line with alternating pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables. Each pair makes up a foot so that each trimeter line has three feet, as in line 2 of the first stanza: ........1...................2..............3 That's NEW | ly SPRUNG | in JUNE

Theme Burns clearly states and restates the theme: The speaker loves the young lady beyond measure. The only way he can express his love for her is through vivid similes and hyperbolic comparisons.