The word “Mondegreen” made it into the dictionary in 2000, 46 years after it was coined. I guess I haven’t written about it since before that time. The word was come up with by American writer Sylvia Wright, in a 1954 essay in Harper’s. As a youth, Wright heard her mother read from “The Bonny Earl o’ Moray”: “They hae slain the Earl o’ Moray/ And laid him on the green.”
Wright thought, though, that she was hearing of a double-murder. For, in her head those last five words registered as “Lady Mondegreen.” Thus, as it chugged its way toward legitimate dictionary status, Mondegreen came to mean the misapprehension of a word or phrase, so as to give new meaning to the larger passage in which the misheard part is contained.
Wright suggested some other Mondegreens in that 1954 essay, among them “Surely Good Mrs. Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life.” In a Wikipedia article, it is suggested the top three song-lyric Mondegreens are these: “Gladly, the cross-eyed bear” (from “Keep Thou My Way,” a Christian hym); “There’s a bathroom on the right” (from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s hit song “Bad Moon Rising”); and “‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy” (from Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”). Wiki cites Jon Carroll, who for many years was considered the premier expert in all matters Mondgreen. As a child, I beamed with pride when I heard large gatherings of people in schools and churches sing, “My country, ‘tis of thee,/ Sweet land of liberty,/ Of V-I-C.” Yep, that’s how I heard it.
Carroll, a columnist himself for many years, predicted in the ‘90s that Mondegreen would make it into the dictionary some day. In one of his writings he posited that the Pledge of Allegiance was a hotbed of Mondgreens, offering the following as a composite of misheard phrases: “I pledge a lesion to the flag, of the United State of America, and to the republic for Richard Stans, one naked individual, with liver tea and just this for all.” (Note: This predates the 1954 insertion of “under God” into the Pledge.)
Others noted by Carroll over the years include:
“Michelle, ma bell, Sunday monkey won’t play piano song” (from a Beatles hit).
“Round John Virgin, mother and child” (from a noted carol).
“Sleep in heavenly peas” (also from a well-known seasonal song).
“Dead ants are my friends” (from Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind”).
“A soft dancer turneth away wrath.”
“Get out of arm’s sway.”
“It’s a doggy dog world out there.”
“No holes barred.”
Carroll, by the way, pretty much gave up writing about Mondgreens himself in the mid-1990s. After years of columns about them, he wrote a piece entitled “Mondgreens Ripped My Flesh.” In it he wrote: “There are many more; many more – I have envelopes stuffed with them. But our eyes grow weary …” Could it be the Mondegreen has had its day?
Vic Fleming is a district court judge in Little Rock, Ark., where he also teaches at the William H. Bowen School of Law. Contact him at vicfleming@att.net.