Roses are red - wikipedia Roses are red This article is about the poem. For other uses, see Roses Are Red ( disambiguation ) and Violets Are Blue ( disambiguation ). `` Sugar is sweet '' redirects here. It is not to be confused with Sweet Sugar ( disambiguation ). For the song by the Party, see Sugar Is Sweet ( song ). For the song by C.J. Bolland, see Sugar Is Sweeter. `` Roses Are Red '' William Wallace Denslow 's illustrations for `` Roses are red '', from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose Nursery rhyme Published 1784 `` Roses Are Red '' can refer to a specific poem, or a class of poems inspired by that poem. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19798. It is most commonly used as a love poem. Contents 1 Lyrics 2 Origins 3 Folklore 4 Notes Lyrics The most common modern form of the poem is : Roses are red, Violets are blue, sugar is sweet, And so are you. Origins The origins of the poem may be traced at least as far back as to the following lines written in 1590 by Sir Edmund Spenser from his epic The Faerie Queene ( Book Three, Canto 6, Stanza 6 ) : 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 blew, And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew. A nursery rhyme significantly closer to the modern cliché Valentine 's Day poem can be found in Gammer Gurton 's Garland, a 1784 collection of English nursery rhymes : The rose is red, the violet 's blue, The honey 's sweet, and so are you. Thou are my love and I am thine ; I drew thee to my Valentine : The lot was cast and then I drew, And Fortune said it shou 'd be you. Victor Hugo was likely familiar with Spenser, but may not have known the English nursery rhyme when, in 1862, he published the novel Les Misérables. Hugo was a poet as well as a novelist, and within the text of the novel are many songs. One sung by the character Fantine contains this refrain, in the 1862 English translation : We will buy very pretty things A-walking through the faubourgs. Violets are blue, roses are red, Violets are blue, I love my loves. The last two lines in the original French are : Les bleuets sont bleus, les roses sont roses, Les bleuets sont bleus, j'aime mes amours. ( Les Misérables, Fantine, Book Seven, Chapter Six ) Folklore Numerous satirical versions have long circulated in children 's lore. Among them : Roses are red. Violets are blue. Onions stink. And so do you. The Marx Brothers ' film Horse Feathers has Chico Marx describing the symptoms of cirrhosis thus : Cirrhosis are red, so violets are blue, so sugar is sweet, so so are you. Benny Hill version : Roses are yellow Violets are bluish If it were n't for Christmas We 'd all be Jewish Notes Jump up ^ `` Roud Folksong Index S299266 Roses are red, violets are blue ''. Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. English Folk Dance and Song Society. Retrieved May 20, 2016. Jump up ^ The Faerie Queene, Cant. VI. Jump up ^ I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes ( Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997 ), p. 375. Jump up ^ Les misérables, Tome I by Victor Hugo at Project Gutenberg Jump up ^ S.J. Bronner, American Children 's Folklore ( August House : 1988 ), p. 84. Jump up ^ `` Jill Still Playing Jacks And Hopscotch Endures '', retrieved 17 September 2009. Jump up ^ Horse feathers Jump up ^ Lawrence Dorfman, Snark ! The Herald Angels Sing : Sarcasm, Bitterness and the Holiday Season, Skyhorse Publishing, ( 2013 ), Nursery rhymes ( list ) `` A-Tisket, A-Tasket '' `` Baa, Baa, Black Sheep '' `` Did You Ever See a Lassie ? '' `` Hey Diddle Diddle '' `` Hickory Dickory Dock '' `` Hot Cross Buns '' `` Humpty Dumpty '' `` I 'm a Little Teapot '' `` It 's Raining, It 's Pouring '' `` Jack and Jill '' `` Little Bo Peep '' `` Little Boy Blue '' `` Little Jack Horner '' `` Little Miss Muffet '' `` Mary Had a Little Lamb '' `` Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary '' `` Old King Cole '' `` Old MacDonald Had a Farm '' `` Old Mother Hubbard '' `` Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe '' `` Peter Piper '' `` Polly Put the Kettle On '' `` Poor Mary '' `` Pop Goes the Weasel '' `` Pussy Cat Pussy Cat '' `` Rain Rain Go Away '' `` Roses Are Red '' `` Rub - a-dub - dub '' `` Simple Simon '' `` Sticks and Stones '' `` The Grand Old Duke of York '' `` The Queen of Hearts '' `` Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star '' `` Two Little Dickie Birds '' Clapping `` A Sailor Went to Sea '' `` Down Down Baby '' `` Mary Mack '' `` Miss Susie '' `` Miss Lucy '' `` Pat - a-cake '' `` Pretty Little Dutch Girl '' `` Pease Porridge Hot '' Counting `` Duck, duck, goose '' `` Eeny, meeny, miny, moe '' `` One, Two, Buckle My Shoe '' `` One, Two, Three, Four, Five '' `` This Old Man '' `` Tinker, Tailor '' Finger - plays `` Five Little Monkeys '' `` Five Little Ducks '' `` Five Little Speckled Frogs '' `` Itsy Bitsy Spider '' `` Little Robin Redbreast '' `` Round and Round the Garden '' `` This Little Piggy '' Games `` London Bridge '' `` The Muffin Man '' `` Mulberry Bush '' `` Oranges and Lemons '' `` Ring a Ring o ' Roses '' `` The Farmer in the Dell '' Riddle `` As I was going to St Ives '' Lullabies `` Hush, Little Baby '' `` Rock - a-bye Baby '' Rounds `` Ding Dong Bell '' `` Frère Jacques '' `` Kookaburra '' `` Row, Row, Row Your Boat '' `` Scotland 's Burning '' `` Three Blind Mice '' Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roses_Are_Red&oldid=817483064 '' Categories : Roud Folk Song Index songs English nursery rhymes Love poems Talk Contents About Wikipedia Русский 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 28 December 2017, at 18 : 04. 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Question: who started roses are red violets are blue
Answer: Sir Edmund Spenser