Hi  -  came to site & registered in the hope of looking up meanings of phrases in songs  -  principally  odd references in old folk/traditional songs/ballads.

Example: can anyone tell me what "pinks and poies" refers to in "Blood Red Roses"?  And, definitively, why "Blood Red Roses";  something to do with the English soldiers against Napoleon, but why?

All I find here so far is song "lyrics".   While that's useful, there's  nowt to do with meanings that I can find.

Has the site grown sideways and left its original purpose behind?

Incidentally, while I 'm indulging in a brief winge, why "lyrics" anyway;  what was wrong with calling them "words" I wonder?

Cheers, Dave T, near Findhorn, near Inverness

Sorry, for "pinks and poies" please read "pinks and posies";  bit of a mis-trype.

Cheers, Dave T

There's a space under the lyrics for "comments". Users are intended to explain the meaning of songs using this facility.
Unfortunately it is rare to find a useful comment. Most visitors seem to use their comments to express their personal feelings about a song.

The more people who post usefully and pertinently, rather than using the site to spray their essence through the internet, the better the site will be for future visitors.

Welcome to Songmeanings.

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Call it peace or call it treason; call it love or call it reason, but i ain't marchin' any more.

It is not clear to me by the context of the song lyric if this applies.

However, when the Black Death spread  across Europe in the mid-14th century the primary symptom was a pink rash near the lymph nodes of the victims. These rashes had a circular quality and were called Rosies for they resembled the flower. This may be the Blood Red Roses, aspecially when you consider the parenthetical lyric 'go down', as in the swelling of the rash to go down.

There was as much superstition as there was science in treating and preventing disease during this period and Posies were used to ward off the evil spirits that were thought to be the cause of the plague.

I hope this is useful to you