What Do the Simple Folks Do

歌詞

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 besieged The folk not noblessly 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 just whistle? So they say What else do the simple folk do To pluck 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 skin? 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 So that's what simple folk do, 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 Have tricks a royal highness is minus from birth What, then, I wonder, do they To chase all the goblins away? They have some tribal sorcery 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 all are in a trance A violent trance astounding to behold And that's what simple folk do, so I'm told Really? I have it on the best authority