[Magdalen] Frivolous question

[James Handsfield]

The term mondegreen comes from one phrase in that ballad:  “They brought him to rest and Lady Mondegreen.”

That was a mis-hearing of “They brought him to rest and laid him on the green.”

There’s a wonderful mondegreen in the song ‘Wildwood Flower’ made popular by the Carter Family.  It comes in the verse:

I will dance, I will sing and my life will be gay.
I will charm every heart, in his crown I will sway.
I woke from my dreaming and all idols were clay
And all fortunes of loving had vanished away.

The mondegreen is in the second line which was originally written (not by AP Carter) ‘in this crowd I survey.’

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Education is its own reward, both for the individual and for society.

Jim Handsfield
jhandsfield at att.net

> On Jul 25, 2015, at 7:17 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> We all know that when you mis-hear something and turn it into something
> else that might make sense to you, it's called a "mondegreen", from the old
> Scottish ballad about the Earl of Moray.