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Just happened to be skimming thru an old book - 'The Nursery Rhymes of England' Collected by James Orchard Halliwell (whom I've never heard of).
Found one about the Fiddle:
To any man alive.
For many a joyful day
My fiddle and I have had.
Many times poems & rhymes end up song lyrics to wonderful melodies.
I don't recall any other 'rhyme', than 'The Cat and The Fiddle'.
...and the only poem - 'The Fiddler of Dooney', by W.B. Yeats:
WHEN I play on my fiddle in Dooney,
Folk dance like a wave of the sea;
My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet,
My brother in Moharabuiee.
I passed my brother and cousin:
They read in their books of prayer;
I read in my book of songs
I bought at the Sligo fair.
When we come at the end of time,
To Peter sitting in state,
He will smile on the three old spirits,
But call me first through the gate;
For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle
And the merry love to dance:
And when the folk there spy me,
They will all come up to me,
With ‘Here is the fiddler of Dooney!’
And dance like a wave of the sea.
Anyone know of any rhymes or poems about the Fiddle/Violin, Viola, or Cello?
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Be wary of public domain for the US, since this is where the forum is located. A Google search should be able to identify what you want to share as pubic domain in the US or not. Interesting topic. There are probably oodles out there.
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I have ulterior motives & don't want a discussion on copyrights.
There's such a thing as 'Fair Use': for non-profit, research, education & quoting. In trying to initiate some creative thinking related to our fiddling, I was wondering if anyone had favorites, or looked at rhymes or poetry about our instruments. It shouldn't be a problem sharing examples of them in this context. Share a link, if concerned.
I figured a good place to start thinking about lyrics would be to 'look' at examples of POETRY & RHYMES - then, consider creating something original!
Emotionally-charged songs are written about things close to the human heart & soul - so, why not about our Violin, Viola, or Cello?
Do you feel a special connection to your fiddle? Maybe now is a good time to think about how to put those feelings into a word form.
Lyrics don't need to be paired with original music. There's a long history of different lyrics set to traditional tunes - some tunes become well known/famous AFTER lyrics have been sung to them.
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Check out, The Violin by Naomi Shihab Nye. 1970's or 80's, I think, but not sure
This is a lovely poem. That is all I have ever read by her. I read it a long time ago.
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I might have the spelling wrong above, but a search should be able to find it.
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@ELCBK
Here’s a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 – 1906) (Public Domain)
The Corn-Stalk Fiddle
When the corn's all cut and the bright stalks shine
Like the burnished spears of a field of gold;
When the field-mice rich on the nubbins dine,
And the frost comes white and the wind blows cold;
Then it's heigh-ho! fellows and hi-diddle-diddle,
For the time is ripe for the corn-stalk fiddle.
And you take a stalk that is straight and long,
With an expert eye to its worthy points,
And you think of the bubbling strains of song
That are bound between its pithy joints —
Then you cut out strings, with a bridge in the middle,
With a corn-stalk bow for a corn-stalk fiddle.
Then the strains that grow as you draw the bow
O'er the yielding strings with a practised hand!
And the music's flow never loud but low
Is the concert note of a fairy band.
Oh, your dainty songs are a misty riddle
To the simple sweets of a corn-stalk fiddle.
When the eve comes on, and our work is done,
And the sun drops down with a tender glance,
With their hearts all prime for the harmless fun,
Come the neighbor girls for the evening's dance,
And they wait for the well-known twist and twiddle—
More time than tune—from the corn-stalk fiddle.
Then brother Jabez takes the bow,
While Ned stands off with Susan Bland,
Then Henry stops by Milly Snow,
And John takes Nellie Jones's hand,
While I pair off with Mandy Biddle,
And scrape, scrape, scrape goes the corn-stalk fiddle.
"Salute your partners," comes the call,
"All join hands and circle round,"
"Grand train back," and "Balance all,"
Footsteps lightly spurn the ground.
"Take your lady and balance down the middle"
To the merry strains of the corn-stalk fiddle.
So the night goes on and the dance is o'er,
And the merry girls are homeward gone,
But I see it all in my sleep once more,
And I dream till the very break of dawn
Of an impish dance on a red-hot griddle
To the screech and scrape of a corn-stalk fiddle.
And then there's this--this here is some good verse 
Characterize people by their actions and you will never be fooled by their words.
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@SharonC -
That's SO COOL!
I never heard of it! Asked Kevin (my Iowa Farm Boy) & he'd never heard of one either... so I had to look.
There IS such a thing, a toy made for kids!
AND, a tune named for it!
<a href="
...had forgot all about The DEVIL!
Guess this thread is more about music than I was thinking!
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@Mouse -
Got a link, to a book or site?
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Let me look. It is a lovely poem.
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Learn Violin and Fiddle
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@ELCBK It is in her book The Red Suitcase. I was hoping that would be a part of the sample you sometimes get on Amazon, but it wasn't.
<a href="
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