- published: 24 Feb 2011
- views: 5836600
"Roses are red" can refer to a specific poem, or a class of doggerel poems inspired by that poem. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19798. It is most commonly used as a love poem.
The most common modern form of the poem is:
The origins of the poem may be traced at least as far back as to the following lines written in 1590 by Sir Edmund Spenser from his epic The Faerie Queene (Book Three, Canto 6, Stanza 6):
A nursery rhyme significantly closer to the modern cliché Valentine's Day poem can be found in Gammer Gurton's Garland, a 1784 collection of English nursery rhymes:
Victor Hugo was likely familiar with Spenser, but may not have known the English nursery rhyme when, in 1862, he published the novel, Les Misérables. 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:
The last two lines in the original French are:
(Les Misérables, Fantine, Book Seven, Chapter Six)
these walls around you
were standing so strong
your hear is wearing thin
i've known it all along
i start to walk into the shadows in the day dream
i know it isn't what it seems
and you're finding out for the first time in your life
you're finding out
you'll fade away
and the truth is going to stain
wash away
everday
for the first time in your life