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Naming in threes

29 Mar 24 - 11:05 AM (#4199997)
Subject: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Em99

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.


29 Mar 24 - 11:14 AM (#4199999)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Doug Chadwick

NORTH COUNTRY MAID

Oh the oak and the ash and the bonnie rowan tree
They flourish at home in my own country

DC


29 Mar 24 - 11:49 AM (#4200001)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Robert B. Waltz

Triple parallelism is a well-known rhetorical technique. (I'm not saying folk song writers knew about it -- I'm sure they didn't -- but it's known to be effective.) Abraham Lincoln was particularly fond of the technique. Take the Gettysburg Address, e.g.: "we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground." "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

For that matter, the tupical meter of ballads is four feet then three feet. In a way, that in itself encourages triple parallelism.


29 Mar 24 - 12:29 PM (#4200003)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Em99

That's very interesting. I wonder if the contemporary musician Joanna Newsom was intentionally recalling "North Country Maid" by near echoing: "Oh the yoke and the axe ..."


29 Mar 24 - 04:55 PM (#4200035)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GerryM

Speaking of Lincoln, and naming in threes, there's the 1968 hit, Abraham, Martin, and John. https://youtu.be/rwn8hIyiHvI?si=XqtAVubKBIbDupQJ


29 Mar 24 - 05:42 PM (#4200037)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Em

And 'Tom, Dick, and Harry' -- Cole Porter's song of that name from 'Kiss Me, Kate' uses the phrase to hilarious effect.


29 Mar 24 - 06:37 PM (#4200041)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Doug Chadwick

Cigareetes and whusky and wild, wild women
They'll drive you crazy, they'll drive you insane

DC


29 Mar 24 - 09:34 PM (#4200047)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: sian, west wales

Not quite the same thing but re: the employment of 3s ...

There is a whole category of song/verse in Wales called "tribannau" - triplets - which are wise, or funny, or both. e.g.

Tri pheth sy'n hawdd eu 'nabod:
Dyn, derwen, a'r diwrnod.
Y dydd yn troi, y pren yn gou,
A'r dyn yn ddauwynebog.

Three things that are easily recognized:
Man, oak tree, and the day.
The day turns, the tree is solid/dense,
And the man is two faced.

Another:

Tri pheth sy' dda gan grotyn
Yw gwraig y ty yn chwerthin,
A'r crochen bach yn berwi'n ffrwd
A llond y cwd o bwdin.

Three things that a lad likes
Are the housewife laughing,
The little pot boiling swiftly,
And a paunchful of pudding.

There are a LOT of these.

sian


29 Mar 24 - 09:37 PM (#4200048)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: sian, west wales

I should have added a link to some triban tunes.

sian


29 Mar 24 - 09:55 PM (#4200049)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Robert B. Waltz

Sian wrote, There is a whole category of song/verse in Wales called "tribannau" - triplets - which are wise, or funny, or both. e.g.

And a very old tradition this is, since the "Welsh Triads" date from the early Middle Ages or earlier. (One collection of them, for instance, is in the White Book of Rhydderch, the main source of the Mabinogion. The best publication is probably Rachel Bromwich, Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Islands of Britain, fourth edition, University of Wales Press, 2014. This gives both medieval Welsh texts and English translations. The first one, for instance, is a triad listing the three thrones of Arthur. Many others are lists of people who meet some criterion or other, but some are more like what Sian describes.


30 Mar 24 - 04:25 AM (#4200058)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Paul Slade

You don't need a formal education in rhetoric to recognise the value of the rule of three and use it for yourself. Some folk singers may have simply picked it up by encountering it in the older songs they know and adopted it from there.

Another interesting use of threes comes in the folk canon's more sinister songs. It was once thought that the Devil knocked three times on the door when he arrived to claim your soul - this being his way of mocking the Holy Trinity - and this led to the number often arising in demonology. When The Gosport Tragedy says of Molly's revenge that she "ripped him and stripped him and tore him in three", that may have delivered an extra little shiver to the song's original listeners.


30 Mar 24 - 04:39 AM (#4200059)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: David C. Carter

Here's to Cisco,Sonny and Leadbelly too...

Dylan's Song to Woody.


30 Mar 24 - 04:40 AM (#4200060)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: David C. Carter


30 Mar 24 - 04:58 AM (#4200061)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Doug Chadwick

THE LEAVING OF LIVERPOOL

Farewell to Lower Frederick Street,
Anson Terrace and Park Lane
For I know that it's going to be a long long time
Before I see you again.

DC


30 Mar 24 - 06:28 AM (#4200067)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: The Doctor

No, my love, not I has a chorus that contains three supposedly impossible things:
When fishes fly and swallows die, young men will prove true.


30 Mar 24 - 10:38 AM (#4200075)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

"The three men I admire the most
The Father, Son and Holy Ghost..."


30 Mar 24 - 10:41 AM (#4200076)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

Not a song, but:

Friends, Romans and countrymen...


30 Mar 24 - 11:01 AM (#4200077)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Nigel Parsons

Instead of Oh the oak and the ash and the bonnie rowan tree (above)
Kipling gives us 'Oak, Ash and Thorn'


30 Mar 24 - 11:49 AM (#4200080)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Robert B. Waltz

Nigel Parsons wrote: Kipling gives us 'Oak, Ash and Thorn'

Although the combination is much older than Kipling. Supposedly it's "ancient Celtic." I believe claims about "ancient Celtic" about as much as I believe crime statistics cited by ex-presidents of the United States, but if you want some folklore that is probably only about two-thirds fakelore, google "oak ash thorn."


30 Mar 24 - 11:56 AM (#4200082)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Doug Chadwick

Friends, Romans and countrymen

Staying with Shakespeare:-
.................
.................
Cry God for Harry, England and St George.


DC


30 Mar 24 - 01:40 PM (#4200094)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Bill D

It feels to me like the musical need to 'resolve a chord'.... at least in Western music. That 3rd note allows a sound to be 'complete'. In poetry and song, there is a similar almost implicit structural need.
   Those who know music theory may be able to say more about it.


30 Mar 24 - 03:11 PM (#4200101)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Robert B. Waltz

Bill D wrote: It feels to me like the musical need to 'resolve a chord'.... at least in Western music. That 3rd note allows a sound to be 'complete'. In poetry and song, there is a similar almost implicit structural need.
   Those who know music theory may be able to say more about it.


It's not really that the third resolves a chord -- a modal chord consisting of the first and the fifth (do and sol, so e.g. C and G in the key of G) doesn't sound as if it is particularly lacking. Indeed, modal chords often sounds particularly full. (This is why DADGAD tuning sounds so rich, e.g. -- the D chord you play in DADGAD is DADAAD, which sounds exceptionally strong.)

What the third does is define whether the chord is major or minor. A modal chord, with just the first and the fifth (C and G in the key of C), can be either. It is only when you a the third -- a major third or a minor third -- that you know whether the chord is major (i.e. Ionian or Mixolydian) or minor (i.e. Aeolian or Dorian). So adding the third to the chord defines the scale of that song.

However, that's not really using the third as a "third"; it's the second of three notes making up the chord. You don't use the first, second, and third of a scale (i.e. C, D, E in the key of C) in a chord.


30 Mar 24 - 04:38 PM (#4200107)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Bill D

Ah.. I knew someone could clarify the musical aspects of it.
Perhaps it's mostly our language structure that brings about so many triad names.


30 Mar 24 - 05:14 PM (#4200112)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,IS

I think it's a very deeply rooted and ancient phenomenon, to think in threes. Georges Dumézil theorised about what he believed to be the 'tripartite' organisation of Indo-European cultures. Obviously in so-called 'Celtic' culture it's very prominent - not just in the Welsh triads but equivalent early Irish texts, the symbol of the triskelion and the notion of the 'triple goddess' a deity with three contrasting yet complementary aspects. Also the Greek Fates, Norse Norns, etc. Countless examples of this phenomenon across time and cultures.


30 Mar 24 - 06:03 PM (#4200114)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Jerry

The rule of three applies to so many things in the creative arts: from stage plays, screenplays, sitcom scripts, musical concertos, photo composition, landscape paintings, lectures and speeches, to even joke telling constructs. In stripped down song accompaniments we have the three chord trick of course (tonic, dominant and sub-dominant chords). In artworks though, check out the Divine Section (Fibanacci Principle) where the use of threes explains a lot.


30 Mar 24 - 06:45 PM (#4200115)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,pete

Sae rantingly, sae wantonly,
Sae dauntingly gaed he!


30 Mar 24 - 06:53 PM (#4200116)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Robert B. Waltz

Guest.IS wrote:
I think it's a very deeply rooted and ancient phenomenon, to think in threes. Georges Dumézil theorised about what he believed to be the 'tripartite' organisation of Indo-European cultures. Obviously in so-called 'Celtic' culture it's very prominent - not just in the Welsh triads but equivalent early Irish texts, the symbol of the triskelion and the notion of the 'triple goddess' a deity with three contrasting yet complementary aspects. Also the Greek Fates, Norse Norns, etc. Countless examples of this phenomenon across time and cultures.


Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu in Hinduism. Gods seem to go from one to three very naturally, without stopping at two. :-)

The Hebrew Bible is divided into Torah, Prophets, and Writings.

Burgundy was the "Middle Kingdom" because it was the portion of Charlemagne's empire between France and the (rump of the) Holy Roman Empire.

In the Middle Ages, armies were almost always organized into three wings (divisions, battles, whatever), whether left/center/right or van/main body/rearguard. The King commanded the center, and his two senior officers (dukes or whatever) the two outside wings. I don't think that's some magic rule of three, though; it's more a tactical help: you can devote the larger portion of the army (i.e. two divisions) to one task (attacking or whatever) and the smaller portion (one wing) to holding its position. The number of medieval battles that followed that pattern was very high.

If you're determined to find threes, you probably will. Although, chances are, if you're determined to find twos, you'll find those, too. :-)


30 Mar 24 - 07:37 PM (#4200117)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Anne Lister sans cookie

For what it's worth - it's a storytelling feature, too. In terms of the story, (and this is found in a number of cultures) something happens three times and the third time is when it changes. Or there are three characters (often brothers, or sisters) and the third is the one who breaks the spell/wins the prize/defeats the enemy. And in terms of the telling, adjectives and adverbs often go in groups of three (or sometimes two) synonyms. I've spent a lot of time in deep study of a 13th century Occitan story, and spent longer than I would like listing the occurrences of these repetitions.
One theory is that if you're dealing with oral performance (as would have been the case more often than not) it ensures the listeners hear the essential features or, in the case of the "rule of three", make sure they're listening for the third time to see what happens.


31 Mar 24 - 03:04 AM (#4200125)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: BobL

Priest, Levite, Samaritan.

First time introduces a situation, second time defines "normality", third time is the interesting exception.
Maybe it's because we live in a three-spaced universe - one point is just a point, two points can define a line, three a curve. Or perhaps it's the milking-stool principle.


31 Mar 24 - 04:53 AM (#4200129)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: David C. Carter

The Father,The Son and The Holy Ghost.


31 Mar 24 - 05:00 AM (#4200130)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: David C. Carter

My mother,about to tell me something,would often start by saying...

'Between you,me and the gate post'.


31 Mar 24 - 06:03 AM (#4200132)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Doug Chadwick

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman went into a bar .....

DC


31 Mar 24 - 07:20 AM (#4200135)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Jerry

Yes, that’s a good example of one for the set up, two for the development and three for the punchline. I saw a film last night where the main character in (Act Three- the denouement ( was searching for something important, and it wasn’t in the first place he looked, nor the second place, but guess what happened in the third place….


31 Mar 24 - 11:08 AM (#4200146)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,henryp

The Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria

The Three Musketeers; Athos, Aramis, and Porthos

The Three Wise Men; we know them as Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar

Trinity College, Cambridge, has a fleet of punts for hire. The name of each has a connection with a trio of some kind.


31 Mar 24 - 11:29 AM (#4200147)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Robert B. Waltz

henryp wrote: The Three Wise Men; we know them as Balthasar, Melchior, and Gaspar

I have to nitpick here -- not the original poster's fault, but worth noting. Yes, people say there were three "wise men." But:

1. The gospel of Matthew does not say they were wise men. It says they were magi (μαγοι, singular μαγος). Magi were Babylonian magicians. The main other use of the word Magi in the New Testament is in Acts, for Simon Magus, who was a magician who was guilty of simony (the buying of clerical offices) and was rejected by the apostles as not ready to be a Christian. Tradition made him the great enemy of the apostle Peter in Rome, though that's not Biblical either. But being a magos implicitly meant he was opposed to God.

2. The gospel of Matthew does not say that there were three of them. It just says that they gave three gifts: gold and two others, one of them being described as either frankincense or something from Lebanon and the other being myrrh, or something from Smyrna, or possible something else (both Greek words are obscure; the translations we use are derived from Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation).

3. There is no actual evidence that they came from the east. It was the star that was in the east. It actually makes more sense to assume that they followed the star from the west.

4. There is, of course, absolutely no Biblical warrant for the three names.

That there were three gifts is absolutely legitimate and conforms to the bit about there being three of things.


31 Mar 24 - 02:19 PM (#4200152)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Doug Chadwick

Getting back to the opening post:-

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?



Not things that are left behind and lost, in this case, but things that the singer is prepared to lose:-

JOHNNY HAS GONE FOR A SOLDIER

I'll sell my clock
I'll sell my reel
Likewise I'll sell my spinning wheel
To buy my love a sword of steel


DC


31 Mar 24 - 05:28 PM (#4200161)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

Rag, Tag and Bobtail

Bell, book and candle

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh


31 Mar 24 - 07:50 PM (#4200170)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

Yes we can

Back to basics

Stop the boats


31 Mar 24 - 09:50 PM (#4200178)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,paperback

Tin Pan Alley

So let's root, root, root for the home team
If they don't win, it's a shame.
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game.

And, if a player strikes-out three times in a single inning 'you're a turkey'


01 Apr 24 - 12:49 AM (#4200181)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: leeneia

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.


01 Apr 24 - 01:01 AM (#4200183)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,E

- The three sons of 'The Wife of Usher's Well' (now ghosts)


- ‘The Twa Corbies’

There were three rauens sat on a tree,
downe a downe, hay downe, hay downe,
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
with a downe,
There were three rauens sat on a tree,
They were as blacke as they might be.
With a downe, derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe.


- 'Three Mowers'

They were three bonny mowers,
Were mowing half the day;
They were three bonny lasses
A-making of the hay.


01 Apr 24 - 03:07 AM (#4200184)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,henryp

The Twa Corbies - The Two Crows

It has a more dark and cynical tone than the Three Ravens, from which its lyrics were clearly derived. There are only two scavengers in "The Twa Corbies", but this is the least of the differences between the songs, though they do begin the same. Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary


01 Apr 24 - 06:48 AM (#4200187)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Robert B. Waltz

Lots of examples from Greek mythology. Three different rulers of the universe over time: Ouranos, then Chronos, then Zeus.

Zeus was one of three brothers who divided the realms of the cosmos: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades.

In the Judgment of Paris, Paris had to choose between three goddesses, Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera. Being a nitwit, he chose Aphrodite and was given Helen of Sparta and ended up dead, and all Troy with him. I mean, what sort of numbskull is going to choose Aphrodite when Athena is one of the options? Think about that one. :-)

Anyway, there are other examples too.


01 Apr 24 - 07:05 AM (#4200188)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

There are three lovely lasses in Bannion


01 Apr 24 - 07:17 AM (#4200189)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

Three Coins in the Fountain

Knock Three Times

Three Times a Lady


01 Apr 24 - 08:35 AM (#4200190)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Bill D

If Goldilocks had eaten only 2 bowls of porridge, the whole story would have been different!


01 Apr 24 - 10:37 AM (#4200192)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Nigel Parsons

Robert B Waltz:
3. There is no actual evidence that they came from the east. It was the star that was in the east. It actually makes more sense to assume that they followed the star from the west.

Except that, if we are accepting the Bible in general, then this was foretold in Psalm 72 (or commented on if you believe that the Book of Psalms was a late addition):
The eastern kings of Sheba and Seba will bring him gifts. All kings will bow before him, and all nations will serve him. He will rescue the poor when they cry to him; he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them.


01 Apr 24 - 11:05 AM (#4200201)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Mrrzy

Goldilocks only ate one bowl, pedant alert. The others were too hot or too cold.

I may not be superstitious but I do wait for the third shoe to drop, as it were, when two related things happen close together.

Larry Niven: one the one hand, on the other hand, on the gripping hand.


01 Apr 24 - 01:40 PM (#4200210)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Robert B. Waltz

Nigel Parsons wrote: Except that, if we are accepting the Bible in general, then this was foretold in Psalm 72 (or commented on if you believe that the Book of Psalms was a late addition):

This requires a whole bunch of assumptions that I do not consider it justified to make, including that Psalm 72 (71 LXX) is about the Messiah rather than an ordinary king (the obvious reading), and that Matthew had that passage in mind.

I don't really think the Magi came from the west (apart from the fact that I think Matthew made the whole thing up); Magi were from Babylon, which was to the east, and Matthew 2:1 says they came from the east. It's just that the description of the star would seem to imply it.

Actually, based on the gifts, the most logical direction is arguably from the north. They started in Smyrna, picking up the item from Smyrna (unreliably translated "myrrh"), then went through Antioch to the Lebanon, picking up the item from Lebanon (unreliably translated "frankincense"), went on through Jerusalem to Bethlehem.

All of which is way too much meaning to wring out of a short passage full of ambiguities. :-)


01 Apr 24 - 04:12 PM (#4200224)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Jim Dixon

Someone once pointed out to me why folktales often have events that happen in threes--

Three is the smallest number in which you can establish a pattern and then break the pattern.

The first two have something in common; the third thing is different from the first two in an important way.

In the Three Little Pigs story, the first two fail to keep the wolf out of their houses; the third one succeeds.

Sometimes it takes two failed attempts for the hero to figure out what he is doing wrong (and for the storyteller to make it clear to the listener); then he applies his new knowledge and succeeds.


01 Apr 24 - 05:03 PM (#4200233)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Rumncoke

Its         

I'll sell my roc
I'll sell my reel

not clock - a roc is a spindle.


01 Apr 24 - 05:03 PM (#4200234)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,henryp

Tyne Cot at Night - Jim Boyes

A Catholic spurned, an exile returned,
And a general reduced to tears
It’s their legacy that the truth should be
Remembered now and down the years


The Sprig of Thyme

It’s very well a-drinking ale,
And it’s nice just to have a drop of wine,
But I like sitting by the young man’s side
That's gain-ed this heart of mine.


01 Apr 24 - 05:30 PM (#4200239)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Doug Chadwick

not clock - a roc is a spindle.

I always wondered why it was 'clock'. The DT has it as 'rod' and 'rock' (which makes even less sense than 'clock').

Have you any references for 'roc' meaning 'spindle'? I did a quick Google search but didn't find it defined in that way.

DC


01 Apr 24 - 06:53 PM (#4200251)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Robert B. Waltz

Jim Dixon wrote: Sometimes it takes two failed attempts for the hero to figure out what he is doing wrong (and for the storyteller to make it clear to the listener); then he applies his new knowledge and succeeds.

Hegel: Thesis, antithesis, synthesis. :-)

Also, on another post, The Gripping Hand is by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, and it's Pournelle's Co-Dominium universe. Primary credit for the set-up probably belongs to Pournelle, although Niven had an equal part in creating the Moties.


01 Apr 24 - 07:05 PM (#4200252)
Subject: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

Apropos of life on the ocean wave...

Churchill: Rum, sodomy and the lash.

George Melly: Rum, bum and concertina.


02 Apr 24 - 08:47 AM (#4200298)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

The Love For Three Oranges (Prokofiev)

The Three-Cornered Hat (Manuel de Falla - wonderful!)


02 Apr 24 - 08:57 AM (#4200299)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

"I saw three ships come sailing in..." (Roud no 700)


02 Apr 24 - 10:56 AM (#4200301)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: MaJoC the Filk

Waiting for the third shoe to drop: I frequently spot people tend to do that about deaths of famous people, eg Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and whoever you wish out of the two (or three (!)) others in the popular music field who died in the summer of 1970. Conversely, I admit I find myself amused by the conflict between "bad luck comes in threes" and "the third one turns the trick".

.... I wish I could track down the original for:

It's like being in the Interstellar Hilton in Marsport, waiting for the being in the room above to drop the Nth shoe, and you don't even know what N is.

PS: Bonus aphorism: Two's coincidence; three's a trend.


02 Apr 24 - 01:14 PM (#4200305)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: FreddyHeadey

poem The Song Of Three - Ian McMillan -
(BBC Radio3 - The Verb - 29th March 2024)


For years he lived at number three.
With three brief notes his doorbell chimed.
He sat on his three-legged stool at
three o'clock; his special time
and pondered on the rule of three.
The Little Pigs, The Billy Goats
his triplets in their matching hats and
matching scarves and matching coats;
The way that three can satisfy
something deep within our soul.
The way the triangle contains
profundity that makes us whole.

And so he wrote a three note song in the
key of three - it was three hours long.
He sang it clear he sang it proud
he sang it very flipping loud
there was a banging on the wall -
a knock knock knock upon the brick
with something bigger than a fist
something like a brush, a stick
he just ignored it tapped the floor
three times to keep the tune's three beat.
Tapped it bolder -one -two -three
with greater vigour than before
to drown out the sound
of those next door -
the funny folk -
at number four.


[transcribed with voice recognition; my line breaks & punctuation]
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001sf6b
> skip to 38:10


The rest of the programme :
,,, in a mood of celebration Ian McMillan and his guests put the number 3 in the spotlight as they explore the magic and the power of three in poetry, storytelling and writing;
- with poet and memoirist Don Paterson to guide us around those poetic forms based on the number three,
- by long-time Verb favourite Ira Lightman with a brand new commission,
- storyteller and author Daniel Morden
- and The Bookshop Band who'll be performing songs inspired by books and by The Verb.


02 Apr 24 - 07:37 PM (#4200322)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll

Peter, Paul and Mary


02 Apr 24 - 09:29 PM (#4200326)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: Stilly River Sage

Larry, Moe, and Curley.


03 Apr 24 - 03:20 AM (#4200329)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

Jesus, Mary and Joseph (without the wee donkey in this case...)


03 Apr 24 - 03:54 AM (#4200330)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: David C. Carter

The Good,The Bad and The Ugly.

Lilly,Rosmary and the Jack of Hearts.

One for the Money,Two for the Show,Three to get Ready and ...

All except for Cain and Abel,and the Hunchback of Notre Dame.


03 Apr 24 - 05:15 AM (#4200331)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

The Three Tenors (Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras)


03 Apr 24 - 05:24 AM (#4200332)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

For UK outdoorsy types, there are the Three Sisters in Glencoe and the Three Peaks in Yorkshire.


03 Apr 24 - 08:08 AM (#4200340)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: David C. Carter

3-In-One Oil.


03 Apr 24 - 08:18 AM (#4200341)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: David C. Carter

Jerrome K.Jerrome. Three Men in a Boat.


03 Apr 24 - 08:45 AM (#4200342)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: David C. Carter

Keening Of The Three Marys.

Found on Celtic Requiem:William Coulter,Mary McLaughlin.


03 Apr 24 - 03:22 PM (#4200352)
Subject: RE: Naming in threes
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw

Triptych - typically an artwork in three panels which are hinged together. I've seen many a triptych as altar pieces in European cathedrals or situated in art galleries. One of my favourites is the one by Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights. It's in a gallery in Madrid and I've yet to see it in the flesh (and there's plenty of flesh in it...) but one day I'd like to (use it or lose it, Shaw...) :-)