The song - made popular by Maybelle Carter and the Carter family. Part of American history.
I've read articles written by other people on what they think the meaning of this song is. I have completely different ideas about it.
I say it's about a native american woman who was jilted by her mountain man / fur trader husband, when he left her to go back to white society.
The song we know is traditional, and comes from the Virginia mountains, written by Maud Irving in 1860.
So let's imagine we are back in the mountains of Virginia in the days of the mountain men / deerskin trading days. The man she is singing about is a mountain man / trapper / fur trader, and the woman singing this lamentation is native american. Imagine then, that after having been his common-law wife, and bearing his children, she is then cast aside. He goes back to white society and legally takes a European bride. The trail of tears occurred in the 1830s. This might give reason to a man for leaving his native wife.
Verse 1 -
I will twine and will mingle (I will twine mid the ringlets)
my raven black hair,
with the roses so red
and the lilies so fair,
and the myrtle so bright
of an emerald hue,
the pale amanita
and hyssop so blue.
She is imagining herself fitting in with European women by comparing herself to them in a social setting such as the one her past lover will be in, when he returns to white society to choose a new bride. The reality for native women was that they were not welcome in this setting.
The 2nd line gives a good clue already - - - "my raven black hair".
This gal's hair is RAVEN black. Not dark brown, not black, but darker than that (like the blue-black of a raven and like the texture of a raven). This already suggests she is native american.
Let's suppose the flowers represent people:
The rose is an emblem for England or Tudor (English, Welsh, Irish and other germanic peoples). These girls sometimes have typical red blushing of cheeks (think Lady Diana). I'm guessing she is singing about these girls when she says "roses so red". I think she is referring to english women.
The lily is the emblem of France. Notice she sings "the lilies so fair" - most europeans arriving in North America before 1850 were nordic looking people with blue eyes, blonde or light brown hair, and pale skin. (Hence the reason they were called "white".) I think she is referring to French women.
True myrtle grows only in the Mediterranean - Spain, Portugal, etc. For the singer to describe this as "so bright... of an emerald hue" to me speaks of the striking appearance of the dark-haired Spanish beauties, with their olive-toned skin (emerald hue). I think she is referring to Mediterranean women.
Because this song comes from the mountains of the eastern US (Virginia or nearby), we know that the bride this man goes off to pluck from European society could end up being english, french or spanish, just by the location of the immigrants in North America and where they lived in the early days of settlement. So the native woman singing this song is imagining who would be available for him to choose from.
If you look at each of these flowers, they each have petals, surrounding the center of the flower, suggestive of a female:
This gives credibility to the idea that these flowers represent women. This song is a comment and lamentation by a native american woman. She even describes herself. She is a "wildwood flower".
Now notice the construction of the song - -
"I will twine and will mingle my raven black hair,
with the roses so red and the lilies so fair,
and the myrtle so bright of an emerald hue,
the pale amanita and hyssop so blue."
What she means to say, is "I will twine and will mingle my raven black hair, toward the pale amanita and hyssop so blue". She does not sing that these two latter items are also twining and mingling.
She is going to bewitch these two. The addition of roses, lilies and myrtle are only a comparison in that she is aware they are her competition. They are the gals he is leaving her for.
The amanita is a poisonous mushroom (with over 600 species) in very many forms and colors. One would not twine nor mingle this in her hair. The native woman not only knew the amanita was poisonous, she could take you by the hand through the forest and find this fungus. One reason to believe the song is sung by a native american.
She wants revenge on this guy, so she wants to go where he is and I think the amanita in this song represents the lover who jilted her. Notice she sings "pale amanita". She is telling us who this person is. It's someone poisonous, it's someone pale. It's the white man that scorned her.
"...and hyssop so blue" - - - - -
The anise hyssop (licorice mint) is a medicinal cure-all plant growing throughout North America that was used by native americans to treat many types of illness. She also wants to "twine and mingle" her hair at the hyssop so blue.
Blue is the color of France. The American civil war didn't start until 1861 so I don't think she is referring to bluecoats. The hyssop will cure her problem, and it will also make her man insanely jealous.
So now she gave us insight as to who her ex-lover was. I think he was nordic, probably not mediterranean, or else he would not be so darn pale, and probably an englishman, because she chooses a frenchman to make him jealous.
She is dreaming about competing with these women for her past lover's attention.
Now take a look at the amanita and the hyssop:
Both of these look like phallic symbols. They are male. In this song, they represent the men in the story.
To "twine" is to wrap something around something several times. It suggests she is going to stir him up. She is going to confuse this past lover. She is going to wrap him around her little finger, or twirl his heart and his emotions.
The use of "to mingle" gives us the context of the place. She is talking about a social setting. Nobody literally "mingles" their own hair. She is imagining going to a public gathering. The fact that she will twine and mingle her raven black hair suggests her hair is different from the other gals at the party.
She is imagining going to that place where her past lover is now choosing a bride, and she is fantasizing about feeling equal to the other women in the room, and then turning on the charm with the French men, finding one that will be sympathetic to her pain, which would make the englishman very angry and hurt indeed!
The french man will offer to heal her heart, or at least make the poisonous englishman who jilted her think she is healed. This is her imagination thinking about levelling the score, or at least lamenting his choice to leave to go get a European woman and casting her aside.
Verse 2 -
Well he taught me to love him
and promised to love
to cherish me always
no other above
how my poor heart is breaking
no misery can tell
He left me no warning,
no word of farewell.
The first line gives another good clue - - he taught her to love him. Why did he need to teach her? Don't most people know how to love?
Of course they do. In their own culture. But in her eyes, he was an immigrant. In the 1800s in white culture, it was a woman's job to love her man by being subservient. It was her duty. But a native woman's culture is one where the women have a role of leadership, so to be subservient to a white man would have been a chore indeed. She must have really loved the guy.
But what matters in this song is that she is explaining that she went out of her way to learn how to care for him the way she was supposed to, and this is what she got for all her trouble. It is a comment on a subservient relationship and the sacrifices made, moreso than the act of making love.
The fact that he promised to love her suggests there was a vow broken, probably a marriage in her tradition, that was not recorded but considered a marriage just the same (common-law of the times).
The rest of this verse is self-explanatory. He changed his mind. He left her no warning, so she didn't even get to say her goodbye(s). He left no word of farewell.
This really did happen after the fur trade ended. Not only did native women lose their men, they sometimes lost their children. And many of these women died of smallpox, cholera, and other diseases, so those left behind had to help each other. I think this is a lamentation song that was borne from the remnant women of the fur trade era and I think this song would have soothed each other in hard times. (An 1800s version of male-bashing?)
I also think it gives a clue as to what happened to her. The fact that he left her no warning either makes a statement about his character and his lifestyle, or else he had something to hide. He had a reason to not forewarn her. I think it's because he took the kids. Here's why...
Verse 3 -
"I will sing, and I'll dance,
and my laugh shall be gay
I will charm every heart,
in his crown I will sway
when I woke from my dreaming,
my idol was clay
All portions of love
had all flown away."
At first thought it appears that she knows she is beautiful and she's making the point that if it weren't for her being culturally excluded, she'd win this game hands down if she were allowed at the party with the roses and lilies and myrtle. It appears that she would make her man very jealous if she were there, and she would also charm every other man there.
But if you look at this verse as a report of what happened to her instead of what she could do, the meaning changes completely - - -
I suspect her husband did not forewarn her because this verse tells the tale of a man who stole their children in the night and took off with them.
"when I woke from my dreaming...." - - the woman was asleep when he took off - -
"All portions of love" refers to their children
"had all flown away" refers to them leaving (flying out of the nest).
But how could that happen? How could any woman not hear her husband leaving with their children, and then wake up to realize they are gone and she will never see them again??
"I will sing, and I'll dance,
and my laugh shall be gay
I will charm every heart,
in his crown I will sway..."
She was at a party, and she was having such a good time, that she laughed gaily, singing and dancing.
But then she mentions his crown. And this is a perfect word to describe what happened to her. Because a crown suggests he is a ruler, and she is a subject under his rule. It also points the finger at him, suggesting that he did something to her to make her sway. His crown is also his circle - - their family is a circle - - the man, the wife and their children are a circle. She is telling us he did something to that circle by making her sway. She is telling us he put her out of his circle. He removed her from the family. I think this was also a warning to other native women of the time, or a comment on what happened them as a whole group of women, as in their commonality at that time.
Why would a rose, lily or myrtle not sway? Why would they not sway from his rule and yet she would sway? Why would she make a comment about herself and not the other flowers?
Because she is a "wildwood flower". This line tells us there is a difference between her and the others. She is telling us how this happened later in the verse. She's telling us what he did.
She's native american. What would cause a native woman, first to sing, dance and laugh gaily, then to easily get sleepy in the 1800s?
Rum.
How hard would it have been for a guy to give her enough rum to make her sleep hard? Enough so that she doesn't hear him nor her children leave in the night? It might sound too harsh, and impossible, and you might not think that she drank at all.
But the song tells us she did. How?
Because the "idol of clay" she awoke to, was the large jug vessel that was common in the fur trade days. It held the rum used by her husband to get her to sleep through his removal of their children, and himself.
She woke up to find just the large jug, hence her "idol was clay" - -
And "in his crown" she swayed. She's telling us he set her up for that. Her pain is partly due to his betrayal.
Native americans lacked the enzyme needed to process alcohol rapidly. You can imagine her hearbreak at this. Hence the line from verse 2:
"how my poor heart is breaking, no misery can tell"
Verse 4 -
"Well he told me he loved me
and called me his flower
That was blooming to cheer him
through life's dreary hour
how I long for to see him
regret the dark hour
He's gone and neglected
his frail wildwood flower."
First she says he called her his flower. Then she refers to herself as his "frail wildwood flower". There is no such real flower named "wildwood". The word "wildwood" is used to describe any flower that grows in a woodland or forest. In this case, she is describing herself in the sense of being native american. She is pointing out the differences between herself and european women, and how she was more than good enough for him while he was in the wilderness, but that now that the fur trade is over, he does not need her anymore, nor does he see her in the same way as he once did. She is making a comment on how easily he tossed her aside after all they went through together. But the fact that she is comparing herself to European women in this song is a testament to the racism toward native women at the time. It is a comment on their contribution having been ignored and shoved aside.
She mentions how she cheered him through "lifes dreary hour". But why was it so dreary?
Because living on the trail, and surviving in the wilderness was hard work, for both the trapper and his wife. She often saved her family from starvation, because native women knew so much about how to hunt, trap, fish, and make a camp. Since furs are thicker in the winter, this is the time of year he was with her, and in summers he would leave to bring the furs to sell. The winters were long for trapper families, and quite dreary.
Her use of the term "blooming" infers that she bore children for him during those years too. For sure it was a conjugal relationship as well as a laborious one.
The phrase "regret the dark hour" confirms 2 things about the story: the man left in the night, and she blames herself for having drank the rum.
Her description of herself as a wildwood flower gives credibility to the idea that every other reference to a plant is also reference to people and not that she is merely weaving flowers and poisonous mushrooms in her hair. It also explains her position in that she is considered "wild" and from the forest as compared to the others with whom she is not allowed to compete. She is also making a comment about the reason he left.
The word "frail" tells me perhaps she has aged or that since her children are gone, her existence is a vulnerable one, and without much support. This was a reality for many native american women after the fur trade days, since they had to return to their villages, and were most likely not seen as belonging to their own tribe anymore, after having been part of fur trade society. Of course this changed their way of life. They were now truly "in the middle". They also were vulnerable whenever their men would be gone for long periods of time. Everytime the trapper left for town, the native wife and children would surely have wondered if he was coming back. This song may not even be so much a venting of frustrations as a lamenting the loss of her whole family. But for sure it is a documentary account on how native women of the time were regarded by society.
But it's the phrase "no words of farewell" that tells the truth of it - - - - that he did not return, that nobody told her goodbye (not even her children), and that she knows she will never see any of them again.
"I will twine and will mingle (I will twine mid the ringlets)
my raven black hair,
with the roses so red
and the lilies so fair,
and the myrtle so bright
of an emerald hue,
the pale amanita
and hyssop so blue.
Well he taught me to love him
and promised to love
to cherish me always
no other above
how my poor heart is breaking
no misery can tell
He left me no warning,
no word of farewell.
I will sing, and I'll dance,
and my laugh shall be gay
I will charm every heart,
in his crown I will sway
when I woke from my dreaming,
my idol was clay
All portions of love
had all flown away.
Well he told me he loved me
and called me his flower
That was blooming to cheer him
through life's dreary hour
how I long for to see him
regret the dark hour
He's gone and neglected
his frail wildwood flower."
© May 2012 Voyageur Metis Reproduction of any of this work is prohibited without prior written consent.
