Re: RIO


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Previous # Next ] [ Start New Thread ] [ TarBoard ]

Posted by Alan Hakim on January 10, 2003 at 08:29:45 from 212.137.166.52 user awhakim.

In Reply to: Re: RIO posted by Peter H on January 04, 2003 at 12:31:13:

I never had any doubt about Rio. At school, at the time I was first reading the books, we regularly used to sing the Rio Grande shanty, and the words were not exactly as in the books. We sang,
I'll sing you a song of the fish in the sea
Way, down Rio.
I'll sing you a song of the fish in the sea
For we're bound for the Rio Grande.
Then away, boys, away,
Way down Rio.
Oh fare ye well
You pretty young girl
For we're bound for the Rio Grande.

(Note that girl rhymes with well, the 'e' of Grande is silent, and the 'i' in Rio is pronounced 'eye'. There are several more verses, but only the first – and the repeat in the third – lines change.)
Therefore Rio and the Rio Grande were the same place, but nobody I knew was curious enough to find out which one in the world it was.
And in the context of the books, Rio town could only be the Rio Grande, derived from the shanty, just as Darien came directly from Keats.

And on a slightly different topic, isn't it extraordinary what memory will dredge up? I haven't thought about this for years, and the words came back unbidden, and I'm humming the tune to myself as I type.


Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
Eel-Mail:

Existing subject (please edit appropriately) :

Comments:

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL:

post direct to TarBoard test post first

Before posting it is necessary to be a registered user.


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TarBoard ]

Courtesy of Environmental Science, Lancaster

space