MONDAY TRAVELS: SCARBOROUGH FAIR English Ballad

Happy Monday friends! Welcome to another edition of Monday Travels

So today we are in England and we will explore:


SCARBOROUGH FAIR

Let's read about Scarborough Fair:

"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional English ballad that hangs, in some versions at least, upon a possible visit by an unidentified person (the "third party") to the Yorkshire town of Scarborough. The song implies the tale of a man who instructs the third party to tell his former love, who lives in said fair town, to perform for him a series of impossible task, adding that if she were to complete these tasks he would take her back into his affections. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her sometime lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt and her heart once he has finished.The melody is in Dorian mode, and is very typical of the middle English period.

Lyrics:

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Remember me to one who lives there
For once she was a true love of mine

Have her make me a cambric shirt
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Without no seam nor fine needle work
And then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to weave it in a sycamore wood lane
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

And gather it all with a basket of flowers
And then she'll be a true love of mine

Have her wash it in yonder dry well
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

where water ne'er sprung nor drop of rain fell
And then she'll be a true love of mine

Have her find me an acre of land
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Between the sea foam and over the sand
And then she'll be a true love of mine

Plow the land with the horn of a lamb
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Then sow some seeds from north of the dam
And then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

And gather it all in a bunch of heather
And then she'll be a true love of mine

If she tells me she can't, I'll reply
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Let me know that at least she will try
And then she'll be a true love of mine

Love imposes impossible tasks
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Though not more than any heart asks
And I must know she's a true love of mine

Dear, when thou has finished thy task
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme

Come to me, my hand for to ask
For thou then art a true love of mine

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/somewhere-i-have-never-travelled-by-ee-cummings

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/somewhere-i-have-never-travelled-by-ee-cummings

Thoughts:

I remember I heard this song for the first time when I was in university and my professor played it in class to show how rich the olden English language and music was.

And I thought, wow, this is such s beautiful and deep meaning song. Then years later and accidentally watched Australian Voice and this young girl sang it and I fell in love with this song! It's so rich in words and in this old medieval troubadour love ballad fashion that it makes me cry!

I think Celia's voice gives this song more depth and more of this hurting desire to be with a loved one.

Gosh, aren't I just a hopeless romantic?


Stay cozy and see you Next Monday!