The King‑Fisher Song

King Fisher courted Lady Bird -
Sing Beans, sing Bones, sing Butterflies!
    'Find me my match,' he said,
    'With such a noble head --
With such a beard, as white as curd --
    With such expressive eyes!'

'Yet pins have heads,' said Lady Bird --
Sing Prunes, sing Prawns, sing Primrose-Hill!
    'And, where you stick them in,
    They stay, and thus a pin
Is very much to be preferred
    To one that's never still!'

'Oysters have beards,' said Lady Bird --
Sing Flies, sing Frogs, sing Fiddle-strings!
    'I love them, for I know
    They never chatter so:
They would not say one single word --
    Not if you crowned them Kings!'

'Needles have eyes,' said Lady Bird --
Sing Cats, sing Corks, sing Cowslip-tea!
    'And they are sharp -- just what
    Your Majesty is not:
So get you gone -- 'tis too absurd
    To come a-courting me!'

Submitted by Emily Ezust [Administrator]

Authorship

• by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 - 1898), as Lewis Carroll, "The King-fisher Song", appears in Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, Chapter I (Bruno's Lessons), first published 1893 [ author's text checked 1 time]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

• by Gary Bachlund , "The King-fisher Song", 2009. [high voice and piano] [
   text verified 1 time
  ]
• by Ulf A. Grahn , "The King-Fisher Song", published 1985, first performed 1992. [voice, piano] [
   text not verified 
  ]

Text added to the website: 2004-04-11.
Last modified: 2015-06-24 15:59:06
Line count: 24
Word count: 139

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