The Fruit of the Wild Rose

'The Fruit of the Wild Rose'
According to the Royal Horticultural Society, "Wild roses (also known as species roses) mostly have thorny stems, single, often fragrant, early summer flowers, usually in one flush, followed by fruits ('hips') if flowers are not deadheaded. They are very attractive to pollinators, especially bees."

It isn't clear which variety h was thinking of, but one of the most common variants in the UK is the Dog Rose, which flowers in May/June with fruit ripening around September/October, which would fit with the lyrics "The fruit of the wild rose, Hangs here with summer gone, Voluptuous crimson, As the days become colder".

Stir your hips...  Feel the seed inside so sweet'
This line is like an inverted double entendre, in that the face value reading of the line is sexualised, invoking as it does a woman writhing at her lover's memory, and the suggestion of impregnation, but there is an additional play on words related to the fruit of the wild rose - the hips - that contains the seeds of the plant.


Songs with a link have explanations.

• Introduction 
• Between You and Me 
• Quartz 
• Map of the World 
• When I Meet God 
• The Fruit of the Wild Rose 
• Separated Out 
• This Is the 21st Century 
• If My Heart Were a Ball It Would Roll Uphill 
• Number One
  
  

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