The rose is red, the violet's blue,
The honey's sweet, and so are you.
1784 version
She bath'd with roses red, and violets blew,
And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.
1590 ~ The Faerie Queene, Sir Edmund Spenser
Les bleuets sont bleus, les roses sont roses,
Les bleuets sont bleus, j'aime mes amours.
1862 ~ Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
foxtrot,foxrot,sugar...it's may not february!
ReplyDeletej ;-)
It may be May in the sunny south, but here it's hard to tell! I turned the heating back on yesterday.
ReplyDeleteBesides, it wasn't intended to be a Valentine message. :) :) Merely interested in where the rhyme came from. Also that "bleuet" translates as cornflower, which would make more sense as it's more the same season, not violet. Surely, even in 1590 violets and roses weren't normally seen together?
ReplyDeleteA I wonder if it refers to the wild (dog rose) which I assume is a summer flowering plant?
ReplyDeleteOther than that I could but offer a slightly more risqué version of roses are red etc.
Gorgeous rose, no matter what!!
ReplyDelete@Mike, your rhyme isn't in my repertoire, but I will now have to investigate. :)
ReplyDelete@Mar, thanks. That was the original point of the post. I'd just been out picking them. They have the most wonderful scent!
A. this reminds me of a song that goes similarly like, "Roses are read my love, violet are blue. Honey is sweet my love, but not as sweet as you." Probably the song is inspired by these 1784 version.
ReplyDelete