Scarborough Fair/Canticle by Simon & Garfunkel Lyrics Meaning – Unraveling the Ballad’s Timeless Mystique
Lyrics
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
(On the side of a hill, in the deep forest green)
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
(Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needle work
(Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain)
Then she’ll be a true love of mine
(Sleeps unaware of the clarion call)
Tell her to find me an acre of land
(On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
(Washes the grave with silvery tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strands
(A soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she’ll be a true love of mine
Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather
(War bellows blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
(Generals order their soldiers to kill)
And gather it all in a bunch of heather
(And to fight for a cause they’ve long ago forgotten)
Then she’ll be a true love of mine
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
In the pantheon of lyrical masterpieces that have swayed the souls of listeners, ‘Scarborough Fair/Canticle’ holds a hallowed space. Crafted by the ineffable Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, this song intersects the simplistic beauty of a traditional English ballad with the penetrating depth of contemporary discontent — creating a mosaic of ambivalent emotions and evocative imagery.
At first glance, it’s a melody that might sweep you away to the renaissance fairs of yore with herbs in the air and love in the heart. But scratch beneath the verses’ surface and you’ll find a painstaking narrative embroidered with the philosophical, the political, and the deeply personal. Let us peel back the layers of this musical onion, promising tears not of sorrow but of profound realization.
A Tapestry of Herbs and Hidden Meanings
The opener is as enigmatic as it is enchanting; the repeated chant of ‘parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme’ is more than a list of ingredients. These herbs serve as medieval symbols — parsley to remove bitterness, sage for strength, rosemary for love, and thyme for courage. Yet, in their repetition, there’s an invocation, a spellbinding motif that alludes to the painstaking tasks set forth as a quest for an impossible love.
What at first may seem like a simple, antiquated plea, evolves into a metaphor for the unattainable. These herbs stitch together not only flavors but also hopes and human conditions, mirroring the complexities of the relationships we navigate and the inner workings of our hopes and desires.
The Canticle’s Cry: A Counterpoint of War and Peace
Amidst this folklore-rich tapestry, Simon & Garfunkel weave a ‘Canticle’ — a counterpoint melody laced with modern-day lyricism that bears the weight of the Vietnam War era’s disenchantment. The juxtaposition of images — a pastoral scene with a war background — paints a stark picture of disillusionment with the era’s political machinations.
The ‘canticle’ murmurs of nature’s serenity disrupted by the clashing sounds of conflict, providing a searing commentary on the bifurcation of society’s idyllic past and its war-torn present. It serves as the duo’s harmonic protest, layering their songs’ meanings with a texture of poignancy and introspection about the era’s socio-political landscape.
The Impossible Tasks: Unraveling the Lover’s Challenge
The ‘scarborough fair’ of the song is laced with a series of proverbial impossible tasks. Each stanza’s folk-infused litany — the crafting of a seamless shirt, the plowing of a field between water and shore, the reaping with a leather sickle — are Sisyphean in nature and underpin a narrative of love that’s as elusive as it is exacting.
These feats are not directives for domesticity but rather a poignant subtext for the reconciliation of idealistic love with stark reality — of bridging the gap between what was and what could never be. They’re timeless constructs that resonate with anyone who has dared to reach for an ideal, be it in love or life’s quixotic pursuits.
The Echo of An Era: Nostalgia Meets Commentary
The ballad doesn’t just transport listeners to the bygone days of open-air markets and mystic fairs; it also acts as a temporal conduit to a 1960s America grappling with the tumult of cultural upheaval and war. Here, Simon & Garfunkel position themselves as the chroniclers of change, the minstrels of memory, who capture the zeitgeist in a melody that is both a refuge and a revelation.
In intertwining the traditional with their contemporary reflections, the duo compels a conversation between generations and ideologies. It’s a nod to the adage that those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it, but also a reminder that the quest for meaning and solace in art is itself a tradition that withstands the ravages of time.
Memorable Lines, Timeless Echoes
‘She once was a true love of mine,’ thus concludes each chorus, a line that resonates with the pathos of reminiscence. It is a haunting refrain that lingers, as much a testament to a person as it is a mourning for lost innocence. These words carry the weight of universality, encapsulating the sentiment of lovers torn asunder not just by space and time but by the relentless tides of change and evolution.
Simon & Garfunkel’s gift of these memorable lines is mirrored in their gift of ‘Scarborough Fair/Canticle’ to the world — a song that does not flinch in the face of complex truths but rather finds beauty in the intertwining of past and present, of peace and turmoil, and of the undying human spirit. Its legacy endures, phrased perfectly in a timeless melody that’s open to interpretation and rich with the insights desired by hearts across ages.
