Where The Wild Roses Grow

They call me The Wild Rose But my name was Elisa Day Why they call me it I do not know For my name was Elisa Day From the first day I saw her I knew she was the one She stared in my eyes and smiled For her lips were the colour of the roses That grew down the river, all bloody and wild When he knocked on my door and entered the room My trembling subsided in his sure embrace He would be my first man, and with a careful hand He wiped at the tears that ran down my face On the second day I brought her a flower She was more beautiful than any woman I'd seen I said, "Do you know where the wild roses grow So sweet and scarlet and free?" On the second day he came with a single red rose Said: "Will you give me your loss and your sorrow" I nodded my head, as I lay on the bed He said, "If I show you the roses, will you follow?" On the third day he took me to the river He showed me the roses and we kissed And the last thing I heard was a muttered word As he knelt (stood smiling) above me with a rock in his fist On the last day I took her where the wild roses grow And she lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief And I kissed her goodbye, said, "All beauty must die" And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth