Released as a single in 1968, “Scarborough Fair/Canticle” is a folk track by Simon & Garfunkel, built on a traditional English ballad dating back to the Middle Ages. A man sends a series of impossible demands to an ex, and a separate set of anti-war lyrics (“Canticle”) is sung simultaneously, which Simon adapted from one of his earlier songs.
Below is a section-by-section breakdown of the lyrics in “Scarborough Fair.”
- Song: Scarborough Fair/Canticle
- Artist: Simon & Garfunkel
- Songwriters: Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel
- Released: 1968
- Album: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
- Genre: Folk, Baroque pop
What is “Scarborough Fair” About?
Verse 1: Pass Along a Message
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Scarborough is a town in North Yorkshire, England, and its fair dates back to medieval times and was a major trading event.
He’s going to ask a traveler heading that way to pass along a message to someone he once loved.
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
These four herbs each carried their own symbolic meaning in medieval times, representing qualities like faithfulness, courage, wisdom, and the letting go of bitterness.
Together, they show up as a kind of refrain throughout the song, a reminder of everything love is supposed to be built on.
Remember me to one who lives there
She once was a true love of mine
“Remember me to” is an old-fashioned way of saying “pass along my regards.”
He wants her to know he still thinks about her, but he can’t bring himself to reach out to her himself.
Verse 2: An Impossible Shirt
Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
On the side of a hill, in the deep forest green
Cambric is a finely woven linen cloth. He wants her to make him one, but the conditions he sets later in the verse make it impossible.
Worth noting here: From this point on, Simon and Garfunkel are singing different lyrics at the same time. Garfunkel sings the main ballad about the lost relationship, while Simon sings a separate anti-war story beneath it. Every other line from here on out belongs to that second story.
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested ground
There doesn’t seem to be any significance to the sparrow other than it represents a normal day in the hills.
Without no seams nor needlework
Blankets and bedclothes, the child of the mountain
A shirt with no seams and no needlework can’t be made. He knows that. The impossible condition is his way of saying she’ll never win him back.
In Simon’s lyrics, a child is on the hillside, wrapped up and resting, oblivious to everything.
Then she’ll be a true love of mine
Sleeps unaware of the clarion call
A clarion was a medieval trumpet used to call troops to battle.
The child sleeping on the hillside has no idea a war is being summoned.
Verse 3: Land That Doesn’t Exist
Tell her to find me an acre of land
On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves
There is no land between the saltwater and the sea strands (mentioned below). Where the water meets the shore, there is no land. He’s asking her to find something that cannot exist.
In Simon’s story, there is a cemetery on the side of the hill.
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Washes the grave with silvery tears
The grave could belong to someone who already died in a previous war.
If that’s the case, someone on that hill has already lost someone, and here comes another war.
Between the saltwater and the sea strands
A soldier cleans and polishes a gun
Then she’ll be a true love of mine
The soldier is preparing for a battle he may not survive.
That, and the man asking his ex to find land that doesn’t actually exist, are both impossible situations.
Verse 4: Reap It With a Sickle of Leather
Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather
War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions
A leather sickle can’t harvest anything. The final task is just as impossible as the rest.
The war has fully arrived in Simon’s lyrics now.
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Generals order their soldiers to kill
These soldiers have to kill their enemy, whether they believe in the cause or not.
And gather it all in a bunch of heather
And to fight for a cause they’ve long ago forgotten
Gather the impossible harvest, fight for a cause nobody remembers anymore.
The two demands are both senseless.
Then she’ll be a true love of mine
The song ends with him still waiting for her to complete something she never can.
“Scarborough Fair” Song Meaning: When the Tasks Are Never Meant to Be Completed
“Scarborough Fair” is about a relationship that ended badly, told through a list of things she’d have to do to win him back, none of which are possible. He can’t just say he misses her or that he’s hurt. Instead, he hides behind impossible conditions.
Simon & Garfunkel layered anti-war lyrics underneath the whole thing, and the two stories mirror each other. A man is demanding the impossible from a woman, while the generals are demanding the impossible from soldiers fighting for reasons nobody remembers.
Songs Like “Scarborough Fair”
Here are some songs that have similar themes:
1. “Girl From the North Country” by Bob Dylan
Dylan wrote this after he was introduced to “Scarborough Fair,” and he even borrowed a line from the ballad. It’s about him sending his regards to an ex through anyone who might pass through her part of the world.
Related: Best Songs with “Girl” in the Title
2. “The Water Is Wide”
This classic British folk ballad is about two people whose love fades over time, leaving one of them wondering how something that once felt so strong could slip away.
3. “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” by Pete Seeger
This 1955 anti-war song is about the cycle of young men going off to war and never coming back, generation after generation.
Related: Best Songs About Flowers
Conclusion: Impossible Love, Impossible War
“Scarborough Fair” had been passed around for centuries before Simon & Garfunkel got hold of it. Paul Simon heard something in it that went beyond a simple breakup ballad. Pairing it with an anti-war story was his way of saying that the feeling at the center of it, being trapped by something you can’t fulfill or walk away from, is one of the oldest human experiences there is.
Check out more 1960s Song Meanings!
