How Roses Came Red

Robert Herrick is a poet with very graphic images and metaphors of sexuality in his poetry. In his poem "How Roses Came Red," Herrick uses the roses as symbols for women and souls in general. "The roses at first were white," meaning they were pure, virtuous, and had virginity.

The color white is used as a symbol for virtue, goodness, godliness, and light. The roses lost their virginity and sense of virtue and became more worldly. There is also "till they could not agree or they more white should be," which could be a reference to clashing churches deciding if the roses in their congregation are more good than the other bushes.

After the roses were pure anymore, they "first came red." Red roses are also a symbol for love and red is also the color of blood, making love and pain the same color. They have lost their innocence. Whenever there is a reference to roses becoming red, it reminds me of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, catching her card soldiers painting her roses red and ordering "Off with their heads." Parents would probably order the same execution if they caught someone being a bad influence and contaminating their white young roses.