Rose Red and Black Bear

During one bleak, bitterly cold winter's night, Black Bear seeks refuge at the hearth in Rose Red's cottage. Knowing that it is wrong to have feelings for an ursine creature, Rose Red stifles her longing; heartbroken at Black Bear's departure in the springtime, she wonders if she will ever find a man who possesses the same warmth of spirit and tenderness as her beloved Black Bear. As she seeks love in a string of unsuitable---and ultimately unworthy---suitors, her thoughts keep returning to the rhyme that Black Bear said to her one night when she played a little too roughly with him, "Rose Red, Rose Red, would you have your suitor dead?" How is it possible that she can possess such feelings for Black Bear, a creature of the forest, what can it possibly mean?