ABSTRACT
The refrain stanza o f this somewhat trite and often confused lyric succeeds in com bining a stable m otif-structure with constantly changing verbal images inside that structure. The opening line is sometimes given as ‘ Green grows the laurel and so does the rue’ , two plant names with (as Belden has remarked) opposite symbolical significance. On occasion, however, the word rue is replaced by yew and the language o f the flowers becomes distinctly incoherent. The most radically changed first line that we have encountered is in a version o f the song reported by C ox from West Virginia: ‘Green grows the wild island and so does the rose.’
