Hi!
I'm new at English teaching and I need your help.
I would like to use the song "Lemon tree" by Fool's Garden. The content is very simple, but I was wondering about the meaning of the lemon tree. May you suggest the best way to present it to students?
Thank you!
The best preparation for explaining the meaning of something to someone else - students included - is to form a reasonable opinion about what you think it means. Perhaps if you post your understanding of the lyrics, we could discuss it.Originally Posted by arimun
PS: Sometimes a lemon tree is just a lemon tree.
Right!
<Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky
And all that I can see
Is just a yellow lemon tree>
The boy is sad and thinks about his girl. The blue sky refers to the promise of love but he doesn't believe it. Lemon tree here stays for something very common and not special?
Should it be correct?
Thank you for your support.
A lemon (tree) is also sour, while love is sweet.
A lemon tree is yellow, while the sky is blue (complementery colours).
A lemon tree is firmly rooted in the earth (stuck in one place, like the man); the sky is limitless, like love.
The girl has told him about the sky, but all he sees is the tree – hence his unhappiness. He cannot see beyond the limitations of the lemon tree.
That’s my reading.
I try not to read too much into pop songs though; and if it were my choice, I’d choose a poem richer in symbolism and imagery. But I suppose you have to start somewhere.
Thank you very much for your ideas. That's really what I was looking for. The fact is that tomorrow I'll have a class (a second year in the Italian middle school, twelve/thirteen years old) which is not mine, moreover they have behavioural problems... that's why I thought of an easy-listening song.
Re: song: Lemon tree
I dont know if this comment will be useful anymore?
but i would like to add that i just figured out that in Christianly like fig stands for 'fertility' and lemon tree signifies 'fidelity'.
There are references to many famous old painting were lemon tree is displayed in background of a romantic couple or similar subject.
SInce now more than a year has past maybe this helps maybe this does not.
I would also like to discuss the song American pie by Don Mclean
Thanks for that information about the symbolism of the lemon tree.
Here's another song about the lemon tree, stressing its duplicity:
Lemon tree, very pretty
And the lemon flower is sweet,
But the fruit of the poor lemon
Is impossible to eat.
YouTube - LEMON TREE by The Brothers Four
When I was just a lad of ten, my father said to me,
"Come here and take a lesson from the lovely lemon tree."
"Don't put your faith in love, my boy", my father said to me,
"I fear you'll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree."
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
One day beneath the lemon tree, my love and I did lie
A girl so sweet that when she smiled the stars rose in the sky.
We passed that summer lost in love beneath the lemon tree
the music of her laughter hid my father's words from me:
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
One day she left without a word. She took away the sun.
And in the dark she left behind, I knew what she had done.
She'd left me for another, it's a common tale but true.
A sadder man but wiser now I sing these words to you:
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
but the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat.
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