I've been told that on the end of "Barbara Allen," most people tend to get the rose and briar bass-ackwards, singing it as the rose growing from her grave (feeling that the rose is a more feminine image), with the briar growing from his.
But a genuine ballad scholar (Dr. David C. Fowler) said that the rose symbolizes true love, hence, it grew from his grave, whereas the spikiness and conditionality of her love produced the briar.
A bit subtle, perhaps, but in "the language of flowers," it makes better sense.