Wildwood Flower - A Song Mystery

1.
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.

2.
I'll sing and I'll dance, my laugh shall be gay;
I'll cease this wild weeping drive sorrow away,
Tho' my heart is now breaking, He never shall know
That his name made me tremble and my pale cheeks to glow.

3.
I'll think of him never I'll be wildly gay,
I'll charm ev'ry heart, and the crowd I will sway,
I'll live yet to see him, regret the dark hour
When he won, then neglected, the frail wildwood flower.

4.
He told me he loved me, and promis'd to love,
Trough ill and misfortune, all others above,
Another has won him, ah, misery to tell;
He left me in silence no word of farewell.

5.
He taught me to love him, he call'd me his flower
That blossom'd for him all the brighter each hour
But I woke from my dreaming, my idol was clay
My visions of love have all faded away.

6.
I'll think of him never I'll be wildly gay,
I'll charm ev'ry heart, and the crowd I will sway,
I'll live yet to see him, regret the dark hour
When he won, then neglected, the frail wildwood flower.

1860 - Words by Maud Irving, Music by Joseph Philbrick Webster

This song was written in 1860 and recorded by The Carter Family in 1928. 
Sara Carter sang the vocal and some of the lyrics were changed.
I love music and have studied composition, music theory and music appreciation, which gave me a love of music history. This wonderful song remains a music mystery.

There are two questions that remain unanswered.

1. Who is Maud Irving?
2. What is Aronatus?

Maud Irving is listed as the writer of the lyrics. The original title of her poem was I Will Twine 'mid The Ringlets. There is only one other work that I could find attributed to Maud Irving. It is a poem called Mildred.  I cannot find the text of this poem.

J.P. Webster was a very famous songwriter, teacher and musician of his day and has over 1,000 songs credited to his authorship. He traveled around the eastern and midwestern United States performing and eventually settling in Indiana. His composition Lorena was used in Gone With The Wind. In The Sweet Bye And Bye is still a well known hymn as is Softly And Tenderly.


In 1859, the year prior to our song in question, Mr. Webster set to music a text written by Thomas Aldrich called Little Maud. J.P Webster did not have any children named Maud (although strangely enough he named his only son, Beethoven.)

There is mention of Maud Irving in a diary that was written in 1874-75 by a fourteen year old girl named Fanny White. On May 15, 1874 she makes a notation of a popular cantata being performed at her school. The name of the cantata is "Maud Irving" and it is about a young beggar girl.
I would be curious to know who wrote this cantata and when.

Miss Irving seems to have only has two known works that can be attributed to her.

I have found a link on "find a grave" of a woman from this era named Maud Irving Cane Cassidy. However no proof of this lady as author of the music.

This causes me to wonder if Maud Irving existed or was this a nom de plume of a man writing poetry from a woman's perspective?

Maud Irving age 20

Apparently I am on to something.

J. William Van Namee

The article that I am linking here in red text states that "Maud Irving” was a pseudonym used by J. William Van Namee, a poet, spiritualist and “trance speaker” (what we today would call a medium, or channeler of spirits), a self-professed "eclectic and clairvoyant physician," and author of Driftwood on the Sea of Life (1860), Poems (1868)

However in 1860, the Library of Congress recorded a copyright filed for I'll Twine ’Mid the Ringlets (LC Classification M1621.W, copyright renewed in 1888), listing J.P. Webster as composer and Maud Irving as lyricist. So did a lady named Maud Irving write the poem or not?

Moving on to our next query. What is aronatus? I have searched for clues regarding this subject. Most discussions on the web believe the poet is referring to a flower called Aronatus. Through all of these texts none have found any botanical sources that bear this name. I am of the opinion those folks are fishing in the wrong stream. This is a song about a brokenhearted girl that has been jilted by a young man that told her he loved her. My take on "the pale aronatus with eyes of bright blue" is this is a reference to her man.

The stanza before speaks of myrtle, which was a foliage that bedecked Roman champions. Education being what it was back in the day demanded an emphasis on knowledge of Latin in school that has since been abandon. Aro is the Latin word for plow. Natu is Latin for by birth. Could Aro-natu(s) mean destined to plow by birth or simply put, a plow boy or a farm boy, a pale farm boy with eyes of bright blue? I don't know but that makes more sense to me than other theories about flowers.

I learned to play this song on guitar as a 13 year old boy and I have played it countless times, usually as fast as possible. It was not until I heard it sung by Linda Williams who performs with her husband Robin, that I realized it was such a lovely song with intense heartfelt lyrics.

It should be savored and played moderately so the listener can appreciate it's meaning. When you come across lyrics such as these it makes you appreciate the similarities that have never changed low these past 150 years.