Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

For my music class I had to analyze a song of my choice. So I chose Simon and Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair/Canticle. Part of the assignment was to look at the meaning of the song and the culture surrounding it. That was by far my favorite part about this assignment.

This piece is actually two songs together. Scarborough Fair was written a long time in Europe about a fair that lasted 45 days. Canticle was a song written by Simon and Garfunkel. The meaning behind all the words in Scarborough Fair are much debated but as it is related to the second song Simon and Garfunkel sing with it the meaning is probably this:

In the lyrics the singer is constantly mention "parsley, sage, rosemary thyme". Supposedly these four herbs were put on peoples bodies if they died of the plague to keep the plague from spreading to other people. Canticle is clearly an antiwar song, if you listen to the lyrics it talks about men who are soldiers that kill simply because they are told to but don't know the reason why. During a concert Simon said the two songs together represented loss.

Below are the lyrics to both songs as arranged by Simon and Garfunkel:
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
(On the side of a hill in the deep forest green)
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
(Tracing a sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needlework
(Blankets and bedclothes a child of the mountains)
Then she'll be a true love of mine
(Sleeps unaware of the clarion call)

Tell her to find me an acre of land
(On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsely, sage, rosemary, & thyme
(Washed is the ground with so many tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strand
(A soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
(War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme
(Generals order their soldiers to kill)
And to gather it all in a bunch of heather
(And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)
Then she'll be a true love of mine

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine


*The words in parenthesis are Canticle.