30 Red And Blue — Summary

Roses are red. Hold up, I mean.

Roses were red. Violents were blue. Honey so sweet. And so are you.

But now, the roses are shriveled. The violents aren't blue. All the flowers are gone. And i will be too.

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

Red and Blue starts out like the familiar "roses are red, violets are blue" rhyme, then stops itself with a awkward little correction: "Hold up, I mean." That interruption signals a change. The speaker restarts in the past tense, and the cheerful love-rhyme becomes something looking backward. Roses "were" red, violets "were" blue, and the sweetness is remembered rather than present.

The last stanza makes the loss plain. The roses are shriveled, the blue is gone, and the flowers have disappeared. Then the final line lands with a jolt: "And i will be too." Following the pattern of the earlier lines, the speaker places themselves among the vanished things. The poem doesn't say why, so the line can be read as a sense of fading away, deep sadness, or something more serious. The mood is quiet and heavy, made sharper by the playful form it borrows. The lowercase "i" adds to the feeling of smallness. Because the rhyme is so light, the ending feels even more painful.

Read also

More by icvetea

All poems
Sadicvetea

17 Myself

I feel my own sadness, I cry alone, I wipe my own tears, I make myself happy,
Sadicvetea

22 Loud

Do you ever play loud music? Lie down on your bed. Stare at the ceiling. Close your eyes.
Romanticicvetea

25 Love

So, when i told you. That loving you almost make life worth it. I was not joking. When i tell you.