Send
Close Add comments:
(status displays here)
Got it! This site "creationpie.com" uses cookies. You consent to this by clicking on "Got it!" or by continuing to use this website. Note: This appears on each machine/browser from which this site is accessed.
Mondegreens: misheard lyrics
1. Mondegreens: misheard lyrics
A mondegreen is pun consisting of a misheard lyric or verse that sounds like something other than what was written.
The term was coined by Sylvia Wright in 1954 who as a child had heard the poem line "
laid him on the green" as "
Lady Mondegreen".
Here are some hymn titles or lines that are mondegreens.
Gladly, the cross-eye bear
Come on oh kinky turtle
Andy walks with me
2. Confirmation bias
The misheard lyric, or mondegreen, is a form of confirmation bias in that people tend to hear things they have heard before.
3. Confirmation bias
A confirmation bias is a bias of accepting only facts that agree with what you have already decided is true and ignoring other facts.
That is, one accepts only new information that confirms what one already believes or has heard, etc. You can ignore facts that you do not know about (ignorance of the law) or ignore things in order to deceive others (and yourself).
A confirmation bias can be encouraged by the use of "
cherry picking" information to view or accept.
4. Whisper chain
A misheard lyric is similar to a "whisper chain" as part of a "whisper game" as a sequence of misheard whispers which can be quite amusing.
5. Whisper game
The "
whisper game" is a way whereby a message is passed from person to person and tends to change with each retelling - especially when whispering where one cannot clearly hear what is being said.
Most cultures have some name for this type of game which is often popular with children - of all ages.
6. Andy walks with me
The refrain of the song "
I come to the garden alone" is the source of a "
mondegreen" which is a misheard lyric.
The joke is that Andy is another name for Jesus.
Andy walks with me and He talks with me,
Andy tells me I am His own.
7. Four calling birds
The original "Twelve days of Christmas" had "four colly birds" where "colly" meant "black". That is "four black birds" where "colly" meant "coal".
In "A midsummer night's dream", Shakespeare uses the phrase "brief as the lightning in the collied night".
The phrase "four colly birds" had become "four calling birds" in the 1909 Frederic Austin version.
8. A monk swimming
The title of the book "
A monk swimming" by Maclachy McCourty comes from mishearing, as a child, a Catholic rosary prayer. Instead of "
amongst women" he heard "
a monk swimmin'".
Book:
A monk swimming, Maclachy McCourty, 1999, Hyperion, 978-0786884148.
9. Lonesome sea
The written work "
The golden vanity" has the following line.
As she sailed upon the lowland sea.
Since the phrase "
lowland sea" is not familiar to many people, this is often misheard as the following.
As she sailed upon the lonesome sea.
10. Mondegreen
A mondegreen for "
Amazing grace" is "
A maze of grapes, how sweet and round".
What happens if grape vines get too much sun and not enough water?
It will be hard raising/raisin grapes. A heard it through the grapevine. Juicy it was a great wine.
11. Keep thou my way
To "
bear the cross" of Jesus brings to mind the song "
Keep thou my way" by Fanny Crosby and the cross-eyed bear called "
Gladly" (verse 3).
Keep Thou my all, O Lord, Hide my life in Thine;
O let Thy sacred light O'er my pathway shine;
Kept by Thy tender care, Gladly the cross I'll bear
Hear Thou and grant my pray'r, Hide my life in Thine.
12. End of page
