Whose cheek is this?

The first line of the poem contains the titular question, asked by the first-person speaker. A first-person pronoun does not appear until Line 4, so the speaker initially seems like a disembodied, third-person speaker. The genitive pronoun “whose” implies possession, and it also indicates that the “possessor” is a specific person as opposed to an animal or other object (which would typically take the pronoun “what”). The “cheek,” a very specific part of the human anatomy, offers just a portion or snapshot of the individual. There are various phrases or cliches associated with the cheek: tongue-in-cheek, cheeky, cheek-by-jowl, etc. Since the 1820s, “cheek” was also used to refer to boldness or self-assuredness. If this part of the body is representative of the whole person, then perhaps this person is a forward individual acting against social norms.

In the second line, this personalized possessive pronoun shifts to a more impersonal, objective tone as the speaker begins their next question with “What.” “What” (Line 2) implies a thing or item as opposed to a person. In this sense, the identity of the person mentioned in the first line has been stripped away. Also in this second line, the speaker broadens their view of the figure before them, specifically gazing on the “rosy face” (Line 2).