Charles Ives' song "The See'r" (1913) is a strange little piece, even by the composer's standards. The music is plodding, unpredictable, angular, and usually at odds with the singer's seemingly haphazard lines. Fully half of the song's short length is devoted to banal repetitions: "He liked to watch the funny things a going by! Going by! Going by! Going by!" Still, one wonders if the poem intentionally gives the viewpoint of an ignorant observer; perhaps the lifeless old man is not just a spectator, but a true seer, his unassuming, lifeless facade disguising the persona of a visionary.

Text:

An old man with a straw in his mouth sat all day long before the village grocery store; he liked to watch the funny things a going by!

—Charles Ives

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