Morag at Old Poetry

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on Sumer Is Icumen In by Anonymous Olde English , on September 25
Don't tell me that weird symbol is an attempt to render the Old English letter thorn? Just use 'th', for goodness sake! That's how it was pronounced. You're just making it impossible for people to read it.

The tune to this verse is a joy. Does anyone else know Benjamin Britten's 'Spring Symphony'? It's a setting of a whole lot of fabulous poetry relating to spring. The final movement sets a long poem by Beaumont & Fletcher, taken from 'The Knight of the Burning Pestle'. Britten has written a splended tune for it, but at the end he brings in a boys' choir to cut across it with 'Summer is icumen in' sung to the traditional tune. Bliss.
on The Menologium. (Preface To The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles) by Anonymous Olde English , on September 25
Wonderful! I'd love to see it in the original. Presumably it was full of alliteration.
on To Her Sea-Faring Lover by Anonymous Olde English , on September 25
Very touching. 'Ghost' here means 'spirit'; the writer is alive, though she isn't sure her lover is.
on Lusty May by Anonymous Olde English , on September 25
A wonderful old Scots poem. There's a good tune, too.