Spring Gallery 3
hot barley soup
a gust of rain
streaks the window
Judi
Published in Haigaonline
volume 11 issue 1 June 2010
This is based on the folk song:
Oats peas beans and barley grow,
Oats peas beans and barley grow,
Can you or I or anyone know
How oats peas beans and barley grow?
I grew up in a small farming town, and I learned a variant I haven't found yet on the web. The version I knew had the last two lines as:
Whether the weather be rain or snow
It's oats peas beans and barley grow.
Going by Wikipedia, the melody was probably written by John Playford in 1650. There seems to be disagreement on when the words were adopted, but is was in the range 1870 to 1894.
