{"id":7021,"date":"2001-02-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2001-02-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-11-07T12:47:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T16:47:55","slug":"the-riddle-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/?p=7021","title":{"rendered":"The Riddle Song"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden\/php\/images\/Folkden_Podcast_Art.jpg\" height=\"200\" width=\"220\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"audio\">\n<div class=\"alignright caption\"><a href=\"?page_id=6069\">How do I download this Mp3?<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"audio_link\">Mp3: <a href=\"http:\/\/ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden\/php\/music\/Riddle.mp3\">The Riddle Song<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"about\">I wonder if this song from the 17th Century inspired the following poem by Walt Whitman?<\/p>\n<p>A Riddle Song<br \/>\nBy Walt Whitman<br \/>\n1819-1892<\/p>\n<p>That which eludes this verse and any verse,<br \/>\nUnheard by sharpest ear, unform&#8217;d in clearest eye or cunningest mind,<br \/>\nNor lore nor fame, nor happiness nor wealth,<br \/>\nAnd yet the pulse of every heart and life throughout the world incessantly,<br \/>\nWhich you and I and all pursuing ever ever miss,<br \/>\nOpen but still a secret, the real of the real, an illusion,<br \/>\nCostless, vouchsafed to each, yet never man the owner,<br \/>\nWhich poets vainly seek to put in rhyme, historians in prose,<br \/>\nWhich sculptor never chisel&#8217;d yet, nor painter painted,<br \/>\nWhich vocalist never sung, nor orator nor actor ever utter&#8217;d,<br \/>\nInvoking here and now I challenge for my song.<\/p>\n<p>Indifferently, &#8216;mid public, private haunts, in solitude,<br \/>\nBehind the mountain and the wood,<br \/>\nCompanion of the city&#8217;s busiest streets, through the assemblage,<br \/>\nIt and its radiations constantly glide.<\/p>\n<p>In looks of fair unconscious babes,<br \/>\nOr strangely in the coffin&#8217;d dead,<br \/>\nOr show of breaking dawn or stars by night,<br \/>\nAs some dissolving delicate film of dreams,<br \/>\nHiding yet lingering.<\/p>\n<p>Two little breaths of words comprising it,<br \/>\nTwo words, yet all from first to last comprised in it.<\/p>\n<p>How ardently for it!<br \/>\nHow many ships have sail&#8217;d and sunk for it!<\/p>\n<p>How many travelers started from their homes and neer return&#8217;d!<br \/>\nHow much of genius boldly staked and lost for it!<br \/>\nWhat countless stores of beauty, love, ventur&#8217;d for it!<br \/>\nHow all superbest deeds since Time began are traceable to it&#8211;and<br \/>\nshall be to the end!<br \/>\nHow all heroic martyrdoms to it!<br \/>\nHow, justified by it, the horrors, evils, battles of the earth!<br \/>\nHow the bright fascinating lambent flames of it, in every age and<br \/>\nland, have drawn men&#8217;s eyes,<br \/>\nRich as a sunset on the Norway coast, the sky, the islands, and the cliffs,<br \/>\nOr midnight&#8217;s silent glowing northern lights unreachable.<\/p>\n<p>Haply God&#8217;s riddle it, so vague and yet so certain,<br \/>\nThe soul for it, and all the visible universe for it,<br \/>\nAnd heaven at last for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"lyrics-header\">Lyrics:<\/div>\n<div class=\"lyrics\">\nThe Riddle Song<\/p>\n<p>[G] I gave my love a [C] cherry that has no [G] stone,<br \/>\nI [D] gave my love a [G] chicken that has no [D] bone,<br \/>\nI gave my love a [G] ring that has no [D] end,<br \/>\nI [C] gave my love a [Am] baby with [C] no [G] crying.<\/p>\n<p>How can there be a cherry that has no stone?<br \/>\nHow can there be a chicken that has no bone?<br \/>\nHow can there be a ring that has no end?<br \/>\nHow can there be a baby with no crying?<\/p>\n<p>A cherry, when it&#8217;s blooming, it has no stone,<br \/>\nA chicken when it&#8217;s pipping, it has no bone,<br \/>\nA ring when it&#8217;s rolling, it has no end,<br \/>\nA baby when it&#8217;s sleeping, has no crying.<\/p>\n<p>Traditional<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do I download this Mp3? Mp3: The Riddle Song I wonder if this song from the 17th Century inspired the following poem by Walt Whitman? A Riddle Song By Walt Whitman 1819-1892 That which eludes this verse and any verse, Unheard by sharpest ear, unform&#8217;d in clearest eye or cunningest mind, Nor lore nor &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/?p=7021\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Riddle Song&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16,10,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humorgameschildren","category-irishbritish","category-love","category-mountainsouthernus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7021"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8534,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7021\/revisions\/8534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/jimmy\/folkden-wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}