Towards the end of his life Robert Burns (1759-96) was engaged in the task of collecting old traditional scottish songs. In one of his letters in 1794 he states that the song "A Red, Red Rose" is "a simple old Scots song which I picked up in the country." Hence the poem is not his original composition.
Burns' poem, however, is charmingly simple and direct in its method of praising his lover and most significantly describes how much he loves her:"As fair art, thou my bonny lass/So deep in luve I am."
He then tells her how much he loves her:
I will luve thee still, my Dear,
While the sands o'life shall run.
The implication is that he will love her forever, that is, infinity. As long as human life exists on this earth he will love her. Burns uses hyperbole, that is, exaggeration to convey to his lover the depth and intensity of his love for her. In the previous line he has told her that he will love her till all the seas dry up! But he is not satisfied with that, because he feels that there is a possibility that all the seas may indeed dry up so he says that he will love her till all human life comes to an end on planet earth!
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