Wildwood Flower

Facebook seems to know how I love music so they often post a song they think I might like. This morning a “Dust-to-Digital” recording of Mother Maybelle Carter singing “Wildwood Flower” was posted. That song always stirs my emotions because I always think of Leigh when I hear it. As I thought about the words, I became curious as to why the song was written and what, if any, special meaning it had. It has always been my understanding that the song was written by A. P. Carter, patriarch of the famous Carter family, so I did a google search for Wildwood Flower by A. P. Carter. I learned that the actual writer of the song in its original form was not A. P. Carter. It was first published in 1860 as “I’ll Twine ‘Mid the Ringlets” by composer Joseph Philbrick Webster, who wrote the music, with the lyrics attributed to Maud Irving. “Maud Irving” is believed to be a pseudonym for poet J. William Van Namee. Several other versions have evolved over the years, to include Carter’s version, with just a little jockeying of the lyrics.

The first verse of the original song was “I’ll twine ‘mid the ringlets of my raven black hair, the lilies so pale and the roses so fair, the myrtle so bright with an emerald hue, and the pale aronatus with eyes of bright blue.” The Carter Family version, which is most often sung today, begins with “Oh, I’ll twine with my mingles and waving black hair, with the roses so red and the lilies so fair, and the myrtle so bright with the emerald dew, the pale and the leader and eyes look like blue.”

Like so many folk/country songs, it’s a tragic song of lost love and heartbreak. I always find ways to relate the music I love to my own life. And although in this case it’s a woman mourning the love who left her for another (“He told me he loved me, and promised to love, through ill and misfortune, all others above; another has won him, Ah! misery to tell; he left me in silence no word of farewell.”) I can easily adapt the words to the tragedy of losing Leigh, who left us all with no words of farewell.

“But I woke from my dreaming, my idol was clay; my visions of love have all faded away.”