The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173194   Message #4199997
Posted By: GUEST,Em99
29-Mar-24 - 11:05 AM
Thread Name: Naming in threes
Subject: Naming in threes
I've been thinking about a folk song, I believe with Scottish roots, called 'Lovely Molly' which closes -- "where the mavis, and the turtle dove, and the nightingale sings."

In the Sam Henry version of the song, it is instead written - "where the lark, the linnet, and the nightingale sings."

It strikes me as very resonant -- the naming of springtime hopes which are also sadly left behind and lost by the singer. I'm wondering if this resonance even has to do with the naming techniques - naming by threes?

Can you think of other songs that do this -- or else that name these longed-for losses in a similar way? I guess I have in mind something like Burns's 'Composed in Spring' - "In vain to me in glen or shaw, / The mavis and the lintwhite sing."

Thanks in advance for any help.