This line is a reference to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”:
“O! be some other name:
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;”
By making this reference, Stein is means that we can call something by any name because it won't change what the thing is because things just are what they are. By doing this, she puts an emphasis on the thing and the word itself. Creating this circular chain of what a rose, the rose is rendered by its name only, which is an idea she plays with throughout the poem as she repeats words in the same line. (Ashton, 602)
Information retrieved from: https://www.englishforums.com/English/ReRoseIsARoseIsARose/wkhwl/post.htm, Works Cited
Picture retrieved from: http://katacatmccracken.blogspot.com/2010/04/rose-is-rose-is-rose-or-naming-necklace.html
“O! be some other name:
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;”
By making this reference, Stein is means that we can call something by any name because it won't change what the thing is because things just are what they are. By doing this, she puts an emphasis on the thing and the word itself. Creating this circular chain of what a rose, the rose is rendered by its name only, which is an idea she plays with throughout the poem as she repeats words in the same line. (Ashton, 602)
Information retrieved from: https://www.englishforums.com/English/ReRoseIsARoseIsARose/wkhwl/post.htm, Works Cited
Picture retrieved from: http://katacatmccracken.blogspot.com/2010/04/rose-is-rose-is-rose-or-naming-necklace.html