Quick challenge: name the poet and complete the passage.
Winter is icumin in
Lhude sing goddam...
Clues will be provided later if this is too obscure.
Got it! Sending private so as not to spoil the search for others.
PResume you found the original as well...?
Got it, too. Now... whence cometh it? In other words, what is this a take-off on?
according to my google, it is a parody of the Middle English "Cuckoo Song"...
Those of us blessed enough to live at the top end of the world(
yart gratia yartis), can use the original wording. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw this post - I have a great little book called
The Oxford book of English Verse 1250-1918, in which all the poems are arranged chronolgically, and guess which one comes first - listed as
circa 1226?
Max, Anna, tsuwm and co
The original is, by most accounts, a 'classic'. I simply wished to give some credit to the winter version, which I hesitate to call a parody purely because i) it is by a very distinguished poet, and ii) if you've ever lived in London, it makes profound sense...
cheer
il miglior fabbro (not)
There must be something wrong with my AP English/British Lit. class. According to this class the first English language poet was Caedmon and the first famous poet was Chaucer, neither of whom fit into the time frame.
There must be something wrong with my AP English/British Lit. class. According to this class the first English language poet was Caedmon
Sorry, I am no scholar, so I am unable to help. However, from a purely lay point of view, for a teacher or reference work to say "the first English poet was ..." seems a bit ambitious. For the statement to have meaning, one must accept a definition of "English" and "poet" - and then prove that no one matched that description prior to the chosen individual. As it happens, my book attributes Cuckoo Song to that most prolific of authors - Anon.
the first English language poet was Caedmon
I will stick my neck out here, fully expecting to have it chopped off at the collar, as I have no idea of who was Caedmon, nor whenor what he wrote. However, the name sounds typically British and a bit dark-age-ish. There is considerable debate among historians (well- there was, I haven't heard it recently) as to when the inhabitants of this cess-pitted isle became "English", but no-one dates it b4 1066, and I'm fairly sure no-one really believes it was as late as the 13th century, so it sounds to me (says he, ducking nervously) as though Caedmon was writing before "English" was a real thing.
The Cuckoo Song is, indeed, a classic which brings back fond memories of the school music-room, where we used to sing that lovely song.
says he...
Hello, s'ayleur!
Ah-hah! Fast search (
http://www.alltheweb.com) did it for me -
Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm !
Sing : Goddam.
- Ezra Pound, Ancient MusicShona appreciated the fact that the page I found this on -
http://www.gardendigest.com/winter.htm- also contained an e.e.cummings quote:
the snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches
Well, I knew it was Pound. That's why I didn't spoil it for the others *materternal glance @ Shona*. The original has been attributed to Chaucer, but you know how the Middle Ages were....
to say "the first English poet was ..." seems a bit ambitious
Well, it's straight from the history of the one and only Venerable Bede. He was supposedly the first to write in Old English.
Ezra Pound. I don't recall all the poem at the moment, but if I do, I'll be back.