Studies In Folk-song And Popular Poetry

An Extensive Investigation Into The Sources And Inspiration Of National Folk Song

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218 FOLK-SONGS OF LOWER BRITTANY.
And when the other horses fling and kick, He will remember the blind mare.
Carry my head to the ferry of Frinaoudour, To serve as a little boat upon the water.
To pass from one bank to the other Those who go to hunt at Plourivo.
Those who go to hunt at Plourivo, The rabbit, the fox and the wild duck.
As has been said, the chief value of folk-song is in its genuineness, in the accuracy with which it reflects not only the emotions, but the habits and customs of the people, so that their peculiar life becomes visible before our eyes. There is an indeĀ­finable charm, not only in the impression of reality, but in the very rudeness and imperfection of the speech, which gives an effect beyond literary art, when deep emotion or domestic pathos are seen through it. We seem to get nearer the primitive heart of mankind than under the effect of the most accomplished literary skill, and there are awakened the homely and tender feelings which lie deep within our nature. The genuine fairy tale created by the vivid and credulous imagination of the uncultivated mind, and the genuine folk-song, the outburst of simple and natural emotion, take a hold upon even the most cultivated intellects as the
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