Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1896 — The “Song of Sixpence” Interpreted. [ARTICLE]

The “Song of Sixpence” Interpreted.

The four-and-twenty blackbirds are the four-and-twenty hours, and the pie that holds them is the underlying earth, covered with the overarching sky. How true a touch of nature it is, that when the pie is opened—that is, when the day breaks—the birds begin to sing! The king is the sun, and the counting of his money is the pouring out of the sunshine. The queen is the moon, and her transparent honey is the moonlight. The maid is the “rosyfingered” dawn, who rises before the sun, her master, and hangs out the clouds (his clothes) across the kky. The particular blackbird, who so tragically ends the tale by snipping oft her nose, is the hour of sunrise.