Lyrics to
The Rose

This version of The Rose was released by Bette Midler in 1979.

Our About Bette Midler page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for The Rose from 1979 as well as all of the other lyrics from Bette Midler that we have in our lyrics database.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Bette Midler or about the 1970s in general.

Some say love, it is a river
that drowns the tender reed.
Some say love, it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed.
Some say love, it is a hunger,
an endless aching need.
I say love, it is a flower,
and you its only seed.

It’s the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance.
It’s the dream afraid of waking
that never takes the chance.
It’s the one who won’t be taken,
who cannot seem to give,
and the soul afraid of dyin’
that never learns to live.

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been to long,
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong,
just remember in the winter
far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed that with the sun’s love
in the spring becomes the rose.

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Bette Midler has released many songs over the years besides The Rose. Bette Midler released songs from 1972 to 2006 spanning across albums like The Divine Miss M, Bette Midler, Songs For The New Depression, Broken Blossom, Live At Last, Thighs And Whispers, The Rose, Divine Madness, No Frills, Mud Will Be Flung Tonight!, Beaches, Some People's Lives, For The Boys, Gypsy, Bette Of Roses, Bathhouse Betty, Bette, Bette Midler Sings The Rosemary Clooney Songbook, Bette Midler Sings The Peggy Lee Songbook, and Cool Yule. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Bette Midler.

If you're a fan of 1970s music looking for more songs from 1979 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and The Rose by Bette Midler

The lyrics to The Rose are just the words, phrases, verses and chorus that Bette Midler used when the song was created in 1979. The lyrics to The Rose have both easy-to-spot meanings and hidden metaphors that have been discussed by the music press and fans, but only Bette Midler and any collaborators know all of the inspirations for the song.

If you like etymology or breaking apart phrases and words, it is easy to understand the lyrics to The Rose by Bette Midler. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to The Rose" means the words set to the music of The Rose, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Bette Midler. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to The Rose and the lyrics to The Rose are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Bette Midler who came here looking just for the lyrics to The Rose, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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