May Queen, The

DESCRIPTION: "Our Queen up the river And we'll keep her there forever with your yah-yah-yah ... Your Queen down the river ... Our Queen can tumble a pole ... birl her leg ... smoke a fag ... ate a hard bap ... The darkie says he'll marry her Because she is a Queen"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Hammond-SongsOfBelfast)
KEYWORDS: bragging ritual nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hammond-SongsOfBelfast, pp. 14-15, "The May Queen" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [148 words]: Hammond-SongsOfBelfast describes Belfast May Day rituals and children's May Queen parades. "The encounters with rival Queens are always exciting and vituperative. Modesty and restraint are not predominant features of the occasion." - BS
Note that this is not to be confused with Tennyson's poem "The May Queen" ("You must wake and call me early, Call me early, mother dear; To-morrow'll be the happiest time Of all the glad new-year, -- Of all the glad new-year, mother, The maddest, merriest day; For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May.") -- a poem which, it seemed, inspired both Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and his contemporary Julia Margaret Cameron to create photos of "The Queen of the May." Dodgson's was of Alice Liddell herself. That poem appears to have been sung at some stage (it's in Dime-Song-Book #6), but I don't know what tune was used. - RBW
File: Hamm014

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