To the left is Lady Mondegreen, who does not exist. Her Ladyship corrects us with the original words that were misheard as her name and brought her into existence as explained below. Click on the picture for the larger view.
American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen," published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954.
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In the essay, Wright described how, as a young girl, she misheard the last line of the first stanza from the 17th-century ballad "The Bonny Earl O'Moray". She wrote:
- When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy's Reliques, and one of my favorite poems began, as I remember:
How this all came about is that last night I posted on Facebook the video below, 'Bad Moon Rising' by Creedence Clearwater Revival, with the headling, 'DON'T GO AROUND TONIGHT!' My friend PJ was the first to comment with, "Theeeere's a bathroom on the right!" (Somebody had to say it.) Yes, somebody surely had to say it. My other friend susan s., would have said it if she had commented first (but she didn't).The actual fourth line is "And laid him on the green". Wright explained the need for a new term:
- Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
- Oh, where hae ye been?
- They hae slain the Earl O' Moray,
- And Lady Mondegreen.
- The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original.
Then I mentioned my memory of my first Mondegreen, which is from the 'Hail Mary', 'Blessed art thou amongst swimmin', and blessed is the fruit of thy wound, Jesus.'
Then Padre Mickey chimed in with his, "Bringing in the Sheets".
If you care to leave your personal Mondegreens in a comment, your favorite misunderstandings from your own experience, well, I'd really like that.
