One verse in the song uses some imagery that many listeners struggle to interpret, referred to as "the oldest riddle in Britain". :
The men of yon forest, they askit of me :
How many strawberries grow in the salt sea? : ''I askit them back with a tear in my e'e''* :
How many ships sail through the forest? • e'e is an
eye dialect form of "eye", pronounced , used in Scotland and the far north of England. In Richard Farina's song "Birmingham Sunday", the verse is: :
The men in the forest they once asked of me :
How many blackberries grow in the salt sea? :
I ask them right back with a tear in my eye :
How many dark ships in the forest? On
Pete Seeger's album ''Live in '65
, he asks the audience whether anyone knows the meaning of the verse. For her album that contained a recording of the song, Irish singer Karan Casey gave the name Ships in the Forest'' after this particular verse. An article in a
Kelowna newspaper suggested that the strawberries refer to a
Celtic clan who were known as "les gens de la fraise" (the people of the
strawberry). ==References==