Sumer Is I-comen In

1 1/16" x 3/4",  58 pages

    "Sumer is i-comen in,
    Lhude sing cuccu.
    Groeth sed and bloweth med and
    Spring the wde nu."

Just in time for summer - one of the oldest songs ever, and still one of the best. Sumer Is I-comen In was written around 1260, in the Wessex dialect of Middle English. That's close enough to the English we speak today that if you ignore the spelling and read the lyric aloud, it makes perfect sense. Just in case, I've provided a translation at the end of the book.

This was one of the first rounds I leaned as a child, after Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  I've tried to give a sense in print of three melodic lines being sung at the same time. I've illustrated the song as a round: the first voice is printed in black, and the second voice appears after a couple of pages in smaller gold print. The third voice comes in a little later, in even smaller gold type, and follows along alone after the first two voices are finished.

The book is bound in a frankly anachronistic Italian paper,  but I think it suits the mood of the poem.

Also available in miniature:  Sumer Is I-comen In

This product was added to our catalog June 15, 2010