Tone and song

Meaning

Tone and song close the trifolium riddle as a test of understanding. The reader has heard names for three parts, body, soul and spirit, alongside salt, sulphur and mercury, yet must understand the little plant rather than merely repeat the list. To grasp tone and song is thus to grasp how the riddling utterance means, not simply its separate words. The English retains both musical nouns. No actual tune, notation or performance instruction is supplied; the musical language figures interpretive recognition and the achieved status of a wise reader.