... My true love gave to me 10 Lords a-leaping, 9 ladies dancing, 8 maids a-milking, 7 swans a-swimming, 6 geese a-laying, 5 golden rings, 4 colly birds, 3 French hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.
The last half of the song I find to be less interesting than the first. Dancing, leaping, piping, drumming, all seem straight forward, and less cryptic. All the birds in the first half of the song seem to be symbolic in some way, or carry some amount of significance to the song (in a secular sense and/or religious sense). It seems to me that the first half of the song refers to what may be served at the Twelfth night celebration, and the second half seems to be a description of the actual celebration. It does seem like quite a jolly party, if I do say so myself.
Religious people would say that the 10 lords a leaping represent the 10 commandments. I think it is a description of the noble males participating in the festivities. That's just me though.
On Wikipedia it says that one theory for the song is that each verse represents a month of the year, and either identifies a food that is common in that month or a sport. I guess October (the tenth month) must be a great month for leaping. I'm happy to hear that, since I'm an October baby myself, and I consistently find myself leaping around October-time each year ;)
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