Characters and speaker

In “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns, the main character is the speaker, who is, in fact, a persona of the poet himself. Another character who is only mentioned is the woman whom the speaker loves, but she is not thoroughly described. Instead, the love the speaker feels becomes a character in itself.

The speaker

The speaker of the poem, or the speaker, is a persona of Robert Burns. The direct involvement of the speaker in the poem is made through the use of personal pronouns or possessive adjectives:

“So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;” (ll. 5-6)

The speaker directly addresses the woman whom he loves, calling her “my bonnie lass” (l. 5), “my dear” (l. 9) or “my only luve” (l. 13). The love the speaker feels for the woman is immense. Initially, he compares his love with the most beautiful of flowers:

“O my Luve is li...