Sam from Nichols, New York, reports that as a boy, he misunderstood the lyrics to the song “Home on the Range.” What, he wondered, is so discouraging about the word seldom? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Seldom is Heard a Discouraging Word”
You know, I could also identify with this story from Sam in Nichols, New York.
He wrote to say that he was confused as a kid when he heard the song Home on the Range.
You know, it has that line about where seldom is heard a discouraging word.
And little Sam wondered why in the world being out on the range made that word seldom discouraging to cowboys, where seldom is heard a discouraging word.
And I thought the same thing.
I could not for the life of me figure out why that particular word, seldom, was such a bummer for cowboys.
That’s wonderful.
What an odd parsing of that sentence.
But I get it because it’s an odd phrasing for a child.
It is.
It’s poetic phrasing or literary phrasing.
