# Red Roses explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Langston Hughes.

## What happens

A speaker contemplates death and burial, expressing a preference to die in springtime when roses can cover her grave, rather than in winter when she would be buried under snow and face the added misery of freezing.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and Mortality

The speaker directly confronts death and the conditions of burial, preferring a springtime death to avoid the cold of winter.

### Nature and the Elements

The poem uses natural imagery—snow, springtime, tulips, and roses—to frame the speaker's anxiety about death and burial.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who waits for springtime and fears being buried under snow.

### Lawd

Addressed in the speaker's lament about dying in winter.

## Key lines

> I’m waitin’ for de springtime When de tulips grow⁠— Sweet, sweet springtime When de tulips grow; Cause if I’d die in de winter They’d bury me under snow.

I am waiting for spring when the tulips bloom, because if I die in winter, I will be buried under snow.

_The speaker expresses a fear of being buried in cold snow rather than in the warmth of spring._

> It’s bad enough to die but I don’t want freezin’ too.

Dying is hard enough, but I do not want to freeze as well.

_The speaker emphasizes the added suffering of a cold burial on top of death itself._

> I’m waitin’ for de springtime An’ de roses red, Waitin’ for de springtime When de roses red ’Ll make a nice coverin’ Fer a gal that’s dead.

I am waiting for spring and red roses, which will make a nice covering for a dead girl.

_The speaker imagines roses as a comforting blanket over her grave, contrasting with the harshness of snow._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_15_se/chapters/red-roses
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_15_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_15_se/chapters