Thursday, September 21, 2006

sigh!!!


Sing a song of sixpence,
A POCKETFUL OF RYE,
Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened,
the birds began to sing.
Oh, wasn't that a dainty dish
To set before a king?
The king was in his counting-house
Counting out his {money;}
The queen was in the parlour
Eating bread and honey.
The maid was in the garden
hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.

Of late I have been reading only Agatha Christie s and I guess its not a good enough thing to say when I (an M.A graduate) am asked “so what are you reading nowadays”, I feel I cant possibly say ‘five little pigs’ and get away with anything. But I love toh! I have finished all the Christie s at Walden and now don’t know what to do, where to go and buy?

Of course have read all Miss Marple s and it’s not fair that they are so few. My mom and I devour the books like ….. I would mayonnaise… heh heh. And my room is completely filled with these perfect looking books,

Where Poirot is written in raised letters, and they smell great, with awesome covers pics, and cost only 150 bucks (of course a year ago it was only 125…so quickly hoarding before it becomes 175)

I love that so many of her titles have a nursery rhyme in them. Some that I can think of right now are:

McGinty’s dead

Pocket Full Of Rye

Five little pigs

Hickory dickory dock

One two buckle my shoe

Crooked house

And then there were none (play).

Three blind mice

Three blind mice, three blind mice,
See how they run, see how they run,
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a thing in your life,
As three blind mice?

The origins of the lyrics to this nursery rhyme are in English history. The 'farmer's wife' refers to Queen Mary I, otherwise known as 'Bloody Mary', the reference to 'farmer's wife' alludes to the massive farming estates which she possessed and those of her husband, Philip of Spain. The 'three blind mice' were three noblemen who were plotting against the Queen - she did not have them dismembered and blinded as inferred in the rhyme - but she did have them burnt at the stake! Agatha Christie too used nursery rhymes to wave horribly sinister plots. In ‘pocket full of rye’ the killer is after her own heart as he uses the rhyme to plan out a murder.

I wish I had not read them ever cos now I have read them all.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i loooooooooove christie. and i always DID prefer poirot to holmes! hehehe.

Anonymous said...

me tooo, just lovve miss marple!

Anonymous said...

btw its me, Manasa..just went for a new look..is it working?