“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;“
(Extract from poem “The Road Not Taken”, by the late Robert Frost, (1874-1963).
Wildflowers.
Lyrics and Vocals: American singer-songwriter, actress, and businesswoman, the late
great Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean (née Parton) [1946 – 2026].
Like Robert Frost’s poem above, Ms Dolly Parton’s song “Wildflowers” is also a gentle celebration of independence and the courage to seek and find a place where you can grow. Written by Ms Parton this song uses the image of a wildflower to explore leaving familiar ground and following your own road. Its central image offers a hopeful way of thinking about belonging. Sometimes, growth means venturing beyond the place where you began.
Wildflowers.
Wildflowers.
The hills were alive with wildflowers and I,
Was as wild, even wilder than they.
For at least I could run,
They just died in the sun,
And I refused to just wither in place.
Just a wild mountain rose,
Needing freedom to grow,
So I ran fearing not where I’d go.
When a flower grows wild,
It can always survive,
Wildflowers don’t care where they grow,
And the flowers I knew,
In the fields where I grew,
Were content to be lost in the crowd.
They were common and close,
I had no room for growth,
And I wanted so much to branch out,
So I uprooted myself from my home ground and left,
Took my dreams and I took to the road.
When a flower grows wild,
It can always survive,
Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.
I grew up fast and wild,
And I never felt right,
In a garden so different from me
I just never belonged,
I just longed to be gone,
So the garden one day set me free.
I hitched a ride with the wind,
And since he was my friend,
I just let him decide where we’d go,
When a flower grows wild,
It can always survive,
Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.
Just a wild rambling rose seeking mysteries untold,
No regret for the path that I chose,
When a flower grows wild,
It can always survive,
Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.
Wildflowers don’t care where they grow.
End.
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