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Test your knowledge Have a go at the "Scarborough Fair" quiz! Newsletter sign-up Sign up for updates on new songs, documentaries and live events. Like this song?
Try these What's on Radio 2 Documentaries Find out more about current and forthcoming documentaries on Radio 2. Explore the BBC. Full Schedule. Contact Us Like this page? A young man requests impossible tasks from his lover, saying that if she can perform them, he will take her back. In return, she requests impossible things of him, saying she will perform her tasks when he performs his.
The use of the herbs "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme" in the lyrics has been debated and discussed. It's possible that they were just put there as a placeholder, as people forgot what the original line was. In traditional folk music, songs grew and evolved over time, as they were passed down through the oral tradition.
That's the reason there are so many versions of so many old folk songs, and possibly why these herbs have become such a prominent part of the verse. However, herbalists will tell you of the symbolism and functions of herbs in healing and health maintenance.
There's also a possibility that these meanings were intended as the song evolved parsley for comfort or to remove bitterness, sage for strength, thyme for courage, rosemary for love. There's some speculation that these four herbs were used in a tonic of some sort to remove curses.
Art Garfunkel adapted the arrangement, integrating elements of another song Simon had written called "Canticle," which in turn was adapted from yet another Simon song, "The Side of a Hill. The purpose of requiring cambric for the shirt is so that the shirt will be slightly shiny. The fabric is tightly woven and when completed, it has a slight glossy finish. Cambric is what makes professional playing cards glossy, last longer, and easier to handle. This material wasn't actually available until the s, having been discovered by the French, so this verse was probably not one of the originals.
Verse 2 - She is to find an acre tract of land between the ocean and the shore. It is quite obvious why this one is impossible. Of course, she could go out and find him an island, but remember that Christopher Columbus did not sail until ; so, at the time this song was originally sung, the world as we knew it was flat and to try and go out and find an island of the prescribed proportions would have been suicide Verse 3 - She is to reap this one-acre "island" from verse 2 with a sickle of leather and harvest it all in a bunch of heather.
Leather is soft and flexible. A sickle is used to cut down the stalks of grain crops. Basically, she is to cut down all of the crop with what may result to nothing more than the sole of a shoe, and bring it home in bound up in a heather bunch. Heather is a small, compact shrub that grows with tiny, narrow leaves. It doesn't grow on the beach, nor does it do very well in salt water, but it was historically symbolic of luck. Incidentally, I personally find it amusing that the song ends with a witty barb.
It all sounds so lovely and forelorn until we get to the end and the man says, "Good luck! Labels: 8 , cambric , canticle , garfunkel , henry , meaning , north yorkshire , parsley sage rosemary and thyme , scarborough fair , simon , viii.
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