Sumer Is Icumen In: Setting the Agenda, Broadening the Appeal

By Our Middle English, Middle England, Fair-to-Middling (Occasionally Meddling) Mid-Middle-Editor, Mr M E Middle-English

Spring, sprang, sprung! Summer, simmer, sammer! Or something like that. At the very least, summer follows spring (not to mention spring’s preceding of summer). Anyhoo; spring has sprung and now summer is a-simmering. In short: summer is a-comin’ in!

Now, I may not be the first to voice that view. If we glance, gaze, squint or indeed stare back into what is delightfully called Middle English poetry, we are met with, among many, many, many, many (many) read-worthy pieces, a dead cert for success of Chaucer-era rhymology. You’ve guessed it, I’m sure, given the patter and the prattle that heads up this piece! It’s of course Sumer is icumen in.

Want the whole thing? ’Course you do. Well, I’ll whet your taste buds with the first verse. The rest can be found on sites like middle­english­poetry­archives­for­interested­readers­of­mediaeval­poetry.org or poetry­in­middle­english­for­those­with­nothing­better­to­do­with­their­time.ac.eu.org.uk.org (or Wikipedia). Here we go (or Heere wee goen (!)):

Sumer is icumen in

Lhude sing cuccu

Groweþ sed

and bloweþ med

and springþ þe wde nu

Sing cuccu

Great stuff! Why Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift or Lewis Capaldi have collectively (or has distributively) not yet made a recording of this beats me—particularly with those beats. Yes, what a meter, what scansion, why rhyme.

Anyway, it’s a tune and half with lyrics to match. And as governments around the world have noted consistently for years, it’s vital that we keep these lyrics in play, in place and in people’s hearts for the good of society, cultural cohesion, education, values and standards. We all recognise that this kind of poetry absolutely must retain its place at the forefront of our cultural conscience.

But problem! Society has moved on a touch since the good ol’ merrie England of the 13^th century. We’re down, relatively speaking, on plagues, monarchical tyranny and open sewers and up on healthcare, centralised plumbing systems and affordable home entertainment systems, for example. Still, it’s not all bad. One thing that has changed for the far better is, of course, the welcome move towards a much more inclusive and individualistic society. And it’s this, when we read Sumer is icumen in, that raises a couple of issues. How can we keep red-hot pieces of art like this relevant and zinging while retaining their authentic pace, tone, style, syntax, affixation mechanisms, morae, intonation patterns, orthographie and meanings while at the same time deconstructing and reworking some of the less 21^st century–compliant aspects? It is to this we now turn. So heads up: analysis is icumen in!

We’ll restrict ourselves in this piece to line 2: Lhude sing cuccu. Now, instructing people to sing in a particular manner after a specific bird may have been entirely right and proper in the medieval period. After all, did not Edward I regularly order his courtiers to wear undergarments of a particular colour on a particular day? So, all fine and dandy to go around exhorting lhude sing cuccu in the then of the far-gone past. But in the here and now of the present, in the all-systems-go 21^st century, it may not cut it. People now expect to select a bird of their own preference to echo—or indeed to echo none at all. And the instruction to sign lhude is all well and good if you’re ploughing up half a hectare of dirt three fields outside the lord of the manor’s moat; not so much in an apartment, busy commercial centre, yoga class or office environment. Let’s tone it down, peeps!

So, with these considerations in mind, and with summer very much a-comin’ in, how’s about the following for an updated rewrite?

Sumer is icumen in

Mimic (or not if you prefer)—in a volume appropriate to your personal best judgement and/or the context you find yourself in—any bird or other animal of your choice

That does seem to do it. We’ve retained the sense, the depth, the clarity and the laser-like targeting of the great ‘summer themes’ for which this excellent piece of writing is so well known, while at the same time freeing up the somewhat high-handed tone that may subtextually inhabit this second line for the millions of readers who want to keep in touch with this work on a daily basis. Especially as summer comes in.

So that’s all good. And of course, if this proves anything, it proves once again how key Middle English poetry is to the social fabric of the 21^st century. Sumer really is icumen in, not just meteorologically, but metaphoro-literarily as well.

Have a great summer—and squeeze in some cuckoo singing if you can!

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