Not an absurdity, really, but I have never been happy with two verses in "I Gave My Love a Cherry."

One starts "I gave my love a chicken." A chicken is far from being a romantic bird. When singing, I would rather not think about chickens.

And then there's "a baby when it's sleeping, there's no cry-en."

True, but for how long? Not a satisfactory resolution of the riddle.

I have folk processed the song as follows:

Riddle: "I showed my love a sparrow that had no bone."
Answer "A sparrow's egg in springtime, it has no bone."

I also got rid of the verb "pippin." I don't feel like explaining "pippin" over and over.


Riddle: I gave my love a baby, with no cryen."
Answer: A baby in its mother, there's no cryen."

That at least resolves the issue for a longer time.

Now I enjoy the song more.