Timeline for Why must "she" perform impossible tasks in order to be "a true love of mine" in "Scarborough Fair"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 7 at 23:14 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | @MattThrower Sorry and this has nothing to do with structure; only with content. Does the difference not matter to you? Have you heard the term 'over-engineered' and do you not think it applies here? | |
| Feb 7 at 10:29 | comment | added | Matt Thrower♦ | @RobbieGoodwin because of the structure of the narrative. The singer says "she once was", then sets an impossible test, after which the singer claims "then she'll be". The fact a test is set to regain the love would seem to rule out an out-growing scenario: otherwise, why seek to regain the relationship? Similarly, if the singer is at fault in ending the relationship, why would they feel they're in a position to ask any kind of test - let alone an impossible one - to regain it? | |
| Feb 7 at 0:29 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | Who doubts the lady is no longer the singer's true love, but 'possibly because she committed some act of betrayal' strikes me as wholly unjustified. Why must she betray him and not vice versa? Why might any betrayal be needed, rather than either simply out-growing the other? | |
| Jan 31 at 11:15 | comment | added | Matt Thrower♦ | @RobbieGoodwin This ties in to the repeated statement that "she once was a true love of mine". The implication here is, of course, that the lady is no longer the singer's true love, possibly because she committed some act of betrayal. So hurt is the singer by that act that he is now demanding an impossible task to prove that she is worthy to win back his love - "then she'll be a true love of mine". | |
| Jan 30 at 22:17 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | Thanks and I failed to see that. Will you please Post it as a snippet? | |
| Jan 30 at 8:56 | comment | added | Matt Thrower♦ | @RobbieGoodwin I've added a paragraph to address this. | |
| Jan 30 at 8:56 | history | edited | Matt Thrower♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 29 at 23:02 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | Don't you think the main point, over-riding all else, is 'She once was a true love of mine'? Not is or might become, but once was? | |
| Jan 29 at 12:17 | comment | added | Gareth Rees | "Impossible or absurd tasks" are H1010–H1049 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature. | |
| Jan 29 at 11:25 | history | edited | Matt Thrower♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 29 at 10:55 | history | answered | Matt Thrower♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |