What Do the Simple Folk Do?
What do the simple folk do
To help them escape when they're blue?
The shepherd who is ailing
The milkmaid who is glum
The cobbler who is wailing
From nailing his thumb?
When they're beset and beseiged
The folk not noblessely obliged
However do they manage
To shed their weary lot?
Oh, what do simple folk do
We do not?
I have been informed by those who know them well
They find relief in quite a clever way
When they're sorely pressed, they whistle for a spell
And whistling seems to brighten up their day
And that's what simple folk do, so they say.
They whistle?
So they say.
What else do the simple folk do
To perk up the heart and get through?
The wee folk and the grown folk
Who wander to and fro
Have ways known to their own folk
We throne folk don't know.
When all the doldrums begin
What keeps each of them in his spin?
What ancient native custom provides the needed glow?
Oh, what do simple folk do?
Do you know?
Once, upon the road, I came upon a lad
Singing in a voice three times his size
When I asked him why, he told me he was sad
And singing always made his spirits rise.
And that's what simple folk do, I surmise.
They sing?
I surmise.
"Arise, my love, arise, my love!
Apollo's lighting the skies, my love!
The meadows shine with columbine
And daffodils blossom away.
Hear Venus call to one and all
Come taste delight while you may!
The world is bright and all is right
And life is merry and gay..."
What else do the simple folk do?
They must have a system or two
They obviously outshine us at turning tears to mirth
And tricks a royal highness is minus from birth
When all the doldrums begin
What keeps each of them in his spin?
They have some tribal sorc'ry
You haven't mentioned yet.
Oh, what do simple folk do
To forget?
Often, I am told, they dance a fiery dance
And whirl till they're completely uncontrolled
Soon the mind is blank, and oh, they're in a trance
A violent trance astounding to behold
And that's what simple folk do, so I'm told
What else do the simple folk do
To help them escape when they're blue?
They sit around and wonder
What royal folk would do
And that's what simple folk do
No, really?
I have it on the best authority.
Yes, that's what simple folk do
