Roses are red, violets are blue. Where is the phrase from? We will tell you

The ‘poem’ the White House used is a cliche, with a million memes and sarcastic jokes based on it. However, what is the origin of ‘roses are red, violets are blue’? How did the phrase become so popular?

Origins of ‘roses are red, violets are blue’

The phrase seems to have first occurred in an epic poem written in England in 1590. Two centuries later, it found its way, with modifications, in a children’s book of rhymes.

The epic poem is The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser. The lines (using an archaic form of spelling), describe a maiden taking a bath on a shiny summer day to “allay the boiling heat”, far away from “men’s view” and surrounded by forest flowers. “It was upon a Sommers shynie day/ When Titan faire his beames did display/ In a fresh fountaine, farre from all mens vew/ She bath’d her brest, the boyling heat t’allay/She bath’d with roses red, and violets blue/And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.”

The Faerie Queene is an allegorical work spanning six volumes, with each volume roughly looking at a different virtue — such as justice, chastity, courtesy — through the story of a different knight. Many believe the work was written in the praise of England’s Queen Elizabeth I.

These lines quoted are in Book 3, where they describe the fairy Chrysogonee (not the Faerie of the title), who gives birth to an important character, Amoret, and her sister Belphoebe. On this “Sommers shynie day”, Chrysogonee falls asleep and is impregnated with the sisters by sun beams.

Then in 1784, the red roses and blue violets were used in a very different context, in Gammer Gurton’s Garland, a book of nursery rhymes. The version here, very similar to the one popular today, goes, “The rose is red, the violet’s blue/ The honey’s sweet, and so are you.”

Popularity of the phrase

Because the lines rhyme, are easy to remember, and lend themselves to countless variations, they slowly became part of folk traditions. A version popular in India replaces the violets with the more familiar sky: “Roses are red, sky is blue, Oh my dear, I love you.”

Also, red roses are a symbol of love — in Greek mythology, red roses are linked to Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Blue violets are a symbol of faithfulness.

As with all immensely popular phrases, the declarations of love soon turned to humour, and now the lines are a part of innumerable mocking whatsapp forwards and internet jokes.