A "mondegreen" is a term for a misheard or misunderstood lyric of a song, or line of a poem. American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen", published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954. It comes from her misunderstanding of the last line of "The Bonnie Earl o' Moray": "They hae slain the Earl o' Moray, And Lady Mondegreen" The actual line is "And laid him on the green".