Transcript of Studies in Folk Song and Popular Poetry
To learn more about the project or provide feedback on the quality of the recording, Please visit italic audiobook aka.ms. Studies in folk song and folk poetry Written by Alfred M. Williams Introduction M.R. Williams' essays deserve a few words of praise from folklorists on this side of the Atlantic as calculated to interest readers in a subject so full of profound importance, but so potentially biased against it as science claims to be material for analysis. For within the last few years folklore has been raised to the rank of serious study in the Folklore Society of London, with the aid of its numerous and lively branches, American and Continental alike, are busy applying the scientific method to tales, customs, songs, and ballads in search of the ancient philosophies that lie at the heart of these philosophies, and what they have to tell about contact between the peoples of the world. Yet the folklorist treats his subject as tenderly as Isaac Walton commands the fisherman to hook his worm, for he remembers the poetry of song and epic, and that laughter and tears are ever young. These articles range over a wide range, in terms of place and time. The first in order deals with purely literary and modern topics. Its existence is justified only in the reasons given by the author. But the majority of them fall within the custom of folklore, and are not only appealing to him. But for all who are moved by the passion and sincerity of primitive poetry, in skill And the sympathy enjoyed by the tone of folk song in the East. And the West is interpreted. In some examples, particularly those from Romania, Mr. Williams does not allow Sufficiently in modern dress in which peasant hair is worn. Edward Claude Studies in folk song and folk poetry American Sea Songs Oh, farewell, my lovely maids Oh, I'm heading to the Rio Grande Rio Rio I I'm committed to Rio Grande sufficiently allow for the modern dress in which the peasant verse is clothed. Edward Claude Studies in folk song and popular poetry American sea songs OH Fare you well, my pretty fair maids Oh I'm bound for the Rio Grande Rio Rio I I'm bound for the Rio Grande No one old enough to remember the glorious spectacle of a fully rigged American vessel sailing fully out of the heads of the harbour, after being thrown out by the tug, has probably forgotten that spectacle. The strong, graceful life the ship lived under their power, the foam beneath the bow wrinkled with it. Rushing forward, the great plain of the ocean, with all its free spirits and smells of salt, beckoning life and adventure seaward around the world. To this, to anyone on board or near enough to hear them, would be added the indefinable and mysterious magic of the sailors' chants, as they pulled the bowlers and collected the pins and caps with a pull that required uniformity of effort,