The song The Rose , written by songwriter Amanda McBroom, was the title track to the 1979 film The Rose and first recorded by its lead actress Bette Midler. The Rose is a touching ballad, and henceforth a popular choice for the First Dance song at weddings. The song is divided into three stanzas, with eight lines each. It doesn 't show a main chorus that is repeated multiple times, which is rather unusual for a pop song. Throughout the song, the use of anaphora is very prominent. In alternating lines of the first stanza the anaphora 'Some say love, it is a ' (v. 1, 3, 5), is followed by a different noun each time. Consequently lines 2 and 4 describe the action of each noun, also with the use of an anaphora, in this case 'That ' (v. 2, 4). Each noun used to describe love is a metaphor. Nevertheless, the first metaphors cast a negative light upon the concept of love. For example love being called a 'river ' (v. 1), which, with the use of a personification, is said to only exist to 'drown ' (v. 2) any beauty in the world. As a 'razor ' (v. 3) it takes the personified course of 'leav[ing] your soul to bleed ' (v. 4), which continues the description of the overly harmful and destructive nature of love. Next, humankind 's dependency on love is defined, with another metaphor, as 'hunger ' (v. 5). This dependency isn 't seen positively though, but much rather as a plague as its presence is exaggerated with a hyperbole as 'endless ' (v. 6). In contrast the Lyrical I states