"Scarborough Fair/Canticle"

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.

Tell her to make me a cambric shirt:
(On the side of a hill in the deep forest green)
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;
(Tracing of sparrow on snow-crested ground)
Without no seams nor needlework,
(Blankets and bedclothes the child of the mountain)
Then she'll be a true love of mine.
(Sleeps unaware of the clarion call)

Tell her to find me an acre of land:
(On the side of a hill, a sprinkling of leaves)
Parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme;
(Washes the grave with so many tears)
Between the salt water and the sea strand,
(A soldier cleans and polishes a gun)
Then she'll be a true love of mine.

Tell her to reap it with a sickle of leather:
(War bellows, blazing in scarlet battalions)
Parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme
(Generals order their soldiers to kill)
And gather it all in a bunch of heather,
(And to fight for a cause they've long ago forgotten)
Then she'll be a true love of mine.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
Remember me to one who lives there.
She once was a true love of mine.

I'm sure most of you have heard this song by Simon and Garfunkel; if you haven't, please find it. I've always loved it, thinking it quite beautiful, but I feel that I'm only just discovering it now. I realized that the main lyrics (the ones not in parentheses) are underscoring the impossibility that she will ever be his true love, because the requests he makes are impossible to fulfill. How is it possible to make a shirt without using needlework or seams? How can land be between the saltwater and the sea strand? It can't happen.

Also, I finally bothered to look up the lyrics, since it's hard to understand the parentheses sometimes (they're so layered with everything else). And, suddenly, the song is an anti-war song! They gradually turn it into that, too--they start with lines that elaborate upon the requests, and then through the use of "silvery tears," they can suddenly talk about the atrocities of war.

Newfound respect for these guys...