A Red, Red Rose may have been inspired by the concept of deep time put forward a few years earlier by geologist James Hutton in his "Theory of the Earth" in 1789 . Hutton and Burns were contemporaries, and would have mixed in similar circles in Edinburgh. A Red, Red Rose "A Red, Red Rose" is a 1794 song in Scots by Robert Burns based on traditional sources. The song is also referred to by the title "Oh, My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose", "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose" or "Red, Red Rose" and is often published as a
Red is closely associated with romantic love or courtly love and Saint Valentine's Day. Both the Greeks and the Hebrews considered red a symbol of love as well as sacrifice. The Roman de la Rose, the Romance of the Rose, a thirteenth-century French poem, was one of the most popular works of literature of the Middle Ages. It was the allegorical search by the author for a red rose in an enclosed garden, symbolizing the woman he loved, and was a description of love in all of its aspects. Later, in the 19th century, British and French authors described a specific