Song of Summer

This is another anonymous lyric that hails from Latin descent and the eleventh century is called Song of Summer. The lyric depicts an array of birds and how they all sing their own song. The author specifies of the certain birds in the lyric and their various types of song; turtledove’s moans, a sparrow’s chatter, a nightingale singing, and eagle soaring and singing, a lark’s melodies, and a swallow’s call.(Anonymous) The birds all have their own distinct song, or voice and purpose in the world, and each one is highlight in this lyric. But if you read properly the lyric also gives light on how the songs all work together. Although each bird, or spirit perhaps, has its own identity they can still be seen as a whole through the one song, made up of their individual songs. The lyric is said to be a “conventional description of what is understood in terms of the book of nature”(Anonymous) and when read together the lyric is really talking about a hidden message of a creator God. The lyric says “thus birds everywhere sing the song of summer” (Anonymous) that shows that every bird has its own song, and its own time in the season and that it is of something greater. This can be related also to people, every soul has its own song or identity, and its own place on this world. The something greater is attributed to the creator God. The lyric shows a good correlation of how basic nature can sometimes reveal greater truths.

Bibliography

Anonymous. “The Ruin” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume A. 3^rd Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton 1334-1344. Print

The Ruin

 The Ruin is another medieval lyric from an anonymous poet in the nineteenth century. It was part of a collection of lyrics known as the Exeter Book, and was partly damaged by a fire. The lyric is to focus on the Roman ruins that dotted the Anglo-Saxon countryside. The beginning of the lyric starts by examining the ruins, how they have been “shattered by fate”(Anonymous)  and are described as having a hue of “crying giants rotted away”(Anonymous). The lyric talks of how the ruin have been paved in red, meaning blood, and have outlasted various kingdoms, but now all that is left is whatever the earth has decided to hold on to. The lyric does well on its part of visualizing what is left, and what Rome was. It describes what once were bath houses, and places for soldiers. You can visualize the power Rome once had, the way the lyric talks about gold, and treasures. The connotation being that Rome was always expanding, always wanting more. There is a bit of sadness to the poem, when you see the contrast of what one thinks of when visualizing Rome, a very powerful prosperous city, but now all that is left is ruin, only remnants of what once was. The lyric ends with saying the city is still fitting of a round pool heated with stones. This makes the reader feel that although the city was great, were it is now is fitting, a warm remembrance of the city is all the world needs.

Bibliography

Anonymous. “The Ruin” The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Volume A. 3^rd Ed. Martin Puchner. New York: Norton 1334-1344. Print